Sometimes, I’ve seen people cite Chaplinsky for the proposition that even general expressions of opinion are unprotected simply because they might yield a violent reaction. But while one can read Chaplinsky itself this way, later precedents make clear that this is not the law. Cohen v. California (1971) is the clearest example: Cohen was convicted for wearing a jacket that said “Fuck the Draft,” but the Court rejected the view that the conviction could be upheld on the grounds that the statement was “fighting words”…

Moreover, the particular statement to which Gov. Dean was apparently referring — Ann Coulter’s 2002 statement quoted as, “My only regret with Timothy McVeigh is he did not go to the New York Times Building” — would not constitute “fighting words,” whether if said in a speech at Berkeley (the apparent occasion for Gov. Dean’s quote), in the initial interview with The Observer, or most other contexts. So I don’t think that Chaplinsky does anything to support Gov. Dean’s initial statement.