User blog comment:Craiglpalmer/SOPA and PIPA Situation Summary/@comment-4733837-20120118054406/@comment-4625146-20120118060216

While there may be the possibility of debate over the constitutionality of the proposed legislation, one must remember that your First Amendment rights are not sacrosanct. Years upon years of case law, and various laws restricting free speech (e.g. hate speech legislation) have shown that there are legitimate reasons to restrict freedom of speech given certain circumstances. One such example would be if that speech is solely for the purpose of committing a crime: You may have freedom of speech, but that doesn't mean you are allowed to warn people in violation of the law that a police officer is coming, and similarly, that doesn't mean you are allowed to freely facilitate the commission of crimes by other people.

These bills are terrible, it's true, but they have the wiggle-room to not be unconstitutional.