I'm not sure if that's not verging on being too political here, but I was quite surprised to see how many otherwise democratic countries still have blasphemy laws.
Especially the map on this article is interesting – insulting religion can lead you to prison in Germany, Poland and Slovakia.
I was more interested by the mention of Life of Brian; as far as I can tell the depictions of all the biblical characters in that movie were in line with at least one gospel?
US SCOTUS could tighten up free speech by deciding that deriding religion doesn't fall under the First Amendment. I expect that's what a lot of blasphemy laws are for - to ensure that nominally free speech is kept within appropriate boundaries.
The current court could, but does that position differ qualitatively from "US SCOTUS could tighten up free speech by deciding that deriding elected politicians doesn't fall under the First Amendment. I expect that's what a lot of libel laws are for - to ensure that nominally free speech is kept within appropriate boundaries."?