I'd assume if you tell fire in a crowded space and there is a stampede (but no fire) you could face civil liability, but not necessarily criminal charges.
Probably. There’s plenty of areas where you can be liable for speech without the 1st amendment being relevant.
There’s parallels to the test for incitement. If you say “Let’s go burn down the grocery store” while you’re out with your friends, and everybody chuckles and nobody does anything to burn down the grocery store, you’re pretty much free and clear of incitement. Your random outburst wasn’t likely to cause imminent lawless action.
If you shout “fire” in the theatre and nothing happens, nobody has been damaged and so there’s no civil claim. But if you shout fire and that leads to a stampede and I get hurt, I have a decent pitch for holding you liable for the harm your statement caused me.
More relevant, you stand on stage in front of a crowd and tell they have to fight, and in the same speech tell them to march on the capital where violence then breaks out and leads to physical harm is what?
I guess you’re going to find out. But the answer is “it depends”. If I start every speech with “Carthago delenda est” for a year and nobody destroys Carthage, and then one day I say it and they do, was my comment directed to inciting imminent lawless action, and likely to produce it?
