heckler’s veto
n.— «The late Harry Kalven Jr. of the University of Chicago Law School invented the phrase “heckler’s veto” to characterize Mr. Taffel’s position. One taking that position says to the would-be demonstrator: You must not march because if you do I will become violent.» —“About Nazi Marches and the ‘Heckler’s Veto’” by Staughton Lynd in Niles, Ohio New York Times Sept. 30, 1977. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
It was a dark and stormy night. So begins the long and increasingly convoluted prose of Edwards Bulwer-Lytton’s best-known novel. Today the annual Bulwer-Lytton Contest asks contestants for fanciful first sentences that are similarly...
Enthusiastic book recommendations! Martha’s savoring the biography of Alexander von Humboldt, the 19th-century explorer, polymath, and naturalist who revolutionized our understanding of nature and predicted the effects of human activity on...