Hate speech is just speech and it IS protected by the First Amendment until it flips over into inciting violence because inciting people to assault or murder people is already against the law.
'Hate Speech' laws -- as promoted by the Political Left -- applies ONLY to the words coming out of the mouths of conservatives when they back their arguments with facts and verifiable statistics while the Left gives a free pass to every leftist race-bating and agitating whacko out there advocating for violence. It is, in other words . . . toxic leftist politics.