The Päivi Räsänen Ruling is a Terrible Violation of Free Speech

The seven-year legal saga of former Finnish Interior Minister Päivi Räsänen continued Thursday as the Finnish Supreme Court found her guilty of “hate speech” for authoring a pamphlet in 2004 in which she expressed her Christian views regarding marriage and sexuality. Experts roundly condemned the ruling as an egregious violation of free speech and freedom of religion by a Western country.In a tight 3-2 decision, the court held that Räsänen and Lutheran Bishop Juhana Pohjola were guilty of having