Why aren't hate groups banned in the U.S.?

[Bandit3 the Worker]

So many normal countries (like Canada and Germany) ban hate groups. Why hasn't the U.S. banned them?

Also, the U.S. has got to be one of very few countries where members of hate groups are allowed to own guns. Why? I'm pro-Second Amendment, but that's ridiculous.

I'm hoping some smart sheriff rounds up hate group members in their county and lowers the boom on them.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Like the GOP is going to vote to ban itself.

[EnglishPete]

So many normal countries (like Canada and Germany) ban hate groups. Why hasn't the U.S. banned them?

Who decides what's a 'hate group'?

[Orthogonian Society Treasurer]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution

[Bandit3 the Worker]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution

If the 1994 crime law can ban gang membership, surely it's constitutional to ban hate groups.

[publicunofficial]

So many normal countries (like Canada and Germany) ban hate groups. Why hasn't the U.S. banned them?

Who decides what's a 'hate group'?

This is the answer. The FBI tracks violent/potentially violent groups like the KKK and various separatist militias in the west. But there's no government agency that looks at, say, the Westboro Baptist Church.

Allowing the government to designate hate groups opens up a can of worms. Could a Democratic president decide Focus on the Family is a hate group? Could a Republican president buy into right-wing nonsense about Black Lives Matter being a radical organization?

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution

If the 1994 crime law can ban gang membership, surely it's constitutional to ban hate groups.

Gangs conspire to commit crimes.  Unless a group conspires to do more than simply hate, there's no crime that's being committed.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

Gangs conspire to commit crimes.  Unless a group conspires to do more than simply hate, there's no crime that's being committed.

Hate groups commit hate crimes.

[Associate Justice PiT]

So many normal countries (like Canada and Germany) ban hate groups. Why hasn't the U.S. banned them?

Who decides what's a 'hate group'?

This is the answer. The FBI tracks violent/potentially violent groups like the KKK and various separatist militias in the west. But there's no government agency that looks at, say, the Westboro Baptist Church.

Allowing the government to designate hate groups opens up a can of worms. Could a Democratic president decide Focus on the Family is a hate group? Could a Republican president buy into right-wing nonsense about Black Lives Matter being a radical organization?

     You are absolutely right that this would become a political football with groups being labeled as such for specious reasons, and anyone who thinks otherwise is far too optimistic about the intentions of political entities. Banning opposition organizations as hate groups is exactly the kind of thing that the First Amendment was conceived to prevent, because it is too ripe for abuse.

[Beet]

I'm less worried about "hate groups" than the rise of hate to begin with. Ethnic relations took a sharp downward dive starting in 2014, and people of color are now paying the price.

[Suburbia]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution

[MarkD]

The right of the people peaceably to assemble. It's also known as freedom of association. I would not have automatically found a commonality between being a member of a gang and being a member of a hate group, nor would have I assumed that all hate groups have engaged in conspiracy to commit crimes.

[Famous Mortimer]

Gangs conspire to commit crimes.  Unless a group conspires to do more than simply hate, there's no crime that's being committed.

Hate groups commit hate crimes.

Hate groups actually have a moderating effect on their members because they keep them in line, keep them from committing crime, because they don't want to be blamed for them and get banned.

[Mercenary]

No. Freedom of speech. I know a lot of people dislike speech theh disagree with but freedom of speech includes speech many dislike. As long as they are not violent they shouldnt be banned.

[Mr. Reactionary]

Thought crimes are bad, even when directed at bad thoughts. I dont see merely existing as a racist a sufficient enough actus reus to justify state violence.

Its also unconstitutional content discrimination under the 1st amendment.

[The_Doctor]

Designating groups as hate groups is retarded. One reason the United States is so much better than Europe at dealing with hate groups is because we let them show their lunacy to the whole world and get ridiculed. Nobody wants to join a socially unacceptable organization. In Europe where hate speech is banned, you encourage underground movements that think they're resisting the big bad government.

By banning the speech you legitimize it as a form of dissent. When you allow a Nazi to talk in public most people will take private initiative to shut them up. (This by the way applies to the government banning hate speech, not private organizations doing it within their premises).

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

meh, free speech, blah blah blah.

[pbrower2a]

Germany and Austria outlaw hate groups because of the great harm that those groups have done in the past. The Allies chose to outlaw Nazism in every possible manifestation from the the Hitler salute to the swastika and stock Nazi phrases.  Of course Nazis did murder six million Jews, among others. Contemporary Germans find Nazism an embarrassment.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

cuz muh first amendment

[EnglishPete]

Germany and Austria outlaw hate groups because of the great harm that those groups have done in the past. The Allies chose to outlaw Nazism in every possible manifestation from the the Hitler salute to the swastika and stock Nazi phrases.  Of course Nazis did murder six million Jews, among others. Contemporary Germans find Nazism an embarrassment.

Germany is not remotely a free country.

[Stand With Israel. Crush Hamas]

That last line in the OP is scarier than 90% of the dogma of hate groups.

[publicunofficial]

If you give government the ability to designate hate groups, prepare for pro-Palestinian protestors to be locked up as anti-Semites.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Anyway, certain organization could and should be banned as terrorist/criminal groups. Grant had KKK designated as such and it was a good thing.

[OSR stands with Israel]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution

[Intell]

Germany and Austria outlaw hate groups because of the great harm that those groups have done in the past. The Allies chose to outlaw Nazism in every possible manifestation from the the Hitler salute to the swastika and stock Nazi phrases.  Of course Nazis did murder six million Jews, among others. Contemporary Germans find Nazism an embarrassment.

Germany is not remotely a free country.

Germans (excluding klarxet) would disagree, but because it has refugees it much unfree.