An excellent piece by Popehat (Ken White) explaining how limited and narrowly defined the exceptions to the first amendment actually are. While it doesn't directly focus on the point, it explains why so many of the horrible things Rs say aren't actually prosecutable under centuries of precedent.
https://popehat.substack.com/p/the-first-amendment-isnt-absolute
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As much as we want horrible people punished for horrible things, we're all safer when the exceptions to the 1st amendment are specific and narrow. Because sometimes the horrible people are in power, too.
I'm reminded of Robert Bolt's Thomas More on giving the Devil benefit of law.
"And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned 'round on you, where would you hide, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man's laws, not God's! And if you cut them down, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake!"