First Amendment News

France’s Idiotic Veil Ban

10:20 am EST April 11th, 2011 | World | 3 Comments

It is amazingly idiotic for the French government to ban people wearing veils. It won’t happen, but we should condemn them from both a presidential and secretary of state level. A law like this would – you would hope – violate the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. This is another sign that our bill of rights was a visionary document. We take for granted the right of free expression, yet even amongst our first word allies this isn’t always the case.

Topic: First Amendment, France, Islam

Supreme Court Sides With Westboro Baptist 8-1

10:27 am EST March 2nd, 2011 | Supreme Court | 66 Comments

This was a pretty easy decision to make. They are odious ghouls, but they retain their first amendment rights.

Topic: First Amendment

Freedom Of Speech For Dummies: Juan Williams, Roger Ailes, Bill O’Reilly & Co.: Listen Up

12:34 am EST October 22nd, 2010 | Conservative, Media | 96 Comments

Norman Rockwell Freedom Of Speech First a refresher. This is the text of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

The misunderstanding of this provision – perhaps the clearest such provision in the Constitution – tells you volumes about the conservative movement and their hypocrisy in lecturing to the rest of us about what is and isn’t unconstitutional. The Constitution’s First Amendment bars the government from infringing on an individual’s right to free expression, religion, assembly, and redress of grievances.

What the Constitution does not guarantee is one’s right to a tv/radio show or a job as a political pundit. There is, to date, no enshrined right in the Constitution that Juan Williams has a right to a job as a news analyst on NPR.

You wouldn’t know this if you listened to the whining of our friendly neighborhood conservatives on Thursday.

Bernard Goldberg:

But these are the kind of people who believe in “free speech” only as long as they agree with you.

Roger Ailes:

Juan has been a staunch defender of liberal viewpoints since his tenure began at Fox News in 1997,” Ailes said in a statement, adding a jab at NPR: “He’s an honest man whose freedom of speech is protected by Fox News on a daily basis.”

Sarah Palin:

I don’t expect Juan Williams to support me (he’s said some tough things about me in the past) – but I will always support his right and the right of all Americans to speak honestly about the threats this country faces.

These people, and their fellow travelers on the right, are all very stupid on this. The government had no involvement in NPR’s decision to end their relationship with Williams. His right to say whatever thing he wants to – bigoted or not – remains perfectly intact. The first amendment grants the freedom of speech without government interference. Williams and all of us retain this right.

Conservatives demonstrate with a frightening reality their absolute ignorance of U.S. laws and practices, but never hesitate to lecture us on the right way to do everything under the sun.

Those who slept through history and civics class have now appointed themselves the unimpeachable guardians of American tradition. They are wrong, and we have to say so, the consequences of allowing ignorance to triumph demand it.

Topic: First Amendment, Fox News, Juan Williams, NPR

Obama Defends Liberty: “We Don’t Differentiate Between Them & Us. It’s Just Us.”

2:25 pm EST September 10th, 2010 | Religion | 44 Comments

Obama

In contrast to what I was angry about with him on yesterday, President Obama was near pitch-perfect in defense of the American value of religious liberty with regards to the “ground zero mosque” fake controversy:

With respect to the mosque in New York, you know, I think I’ve been pretty clear on my position here. And that is is that this country stands for the proposition that all men and women are created equal, that they have certain inalienable rights. One of those inalienable rights is to practice their religion freely. And what that means is that if you could build a church on a site, you could build a synagogue on a site, if you could build a Hindu temple on a site, then you should be able to build a mosque on a site.

Now, I recognize the extraordinary sensitivities around 9/11. You know, I — I’ve met with families of 9/11 victims in the past. You know, I can only imagine the — the continuing pain and anguish and sense of loss that they may go through. And tomorrow, we as Americans are going to be joining them in prayer and remembrance.

But I go back to what I said earlier. We are not at war against Islam. We’re at war against terrorist organizations that have distorted Islam or falsely used the banner of Islam to engage in their destructive acts.

And we’ve got to be clear about that. We’ve got to be clear about that because if we’re going to deal with the problems that Ed Henry (of CNN) was talking about, if we’re going to successfully reduce the terrorist threat, then we need all the allies we can get.

The — the folks who are most interested in a war between the United States or the West and Islam are Al Qaida. That’s what they’ve been banking on.

And, fortunately, the overwhelming majority of Muslims around the world are peace-loving, are interested in the same things that you and I are interested in: How do I make sure I can get a good job? How can I make sure that my kids get a decent education? How can I make sure I’m safe? How can I improve my lot in life? And so they have rejected this violent ideology for the most part — overwhelmingly.

And — and so from a national security interest, we want to be clear about who the enemy is here. It’s a handful of — a tiny minority of people who are engaging in horrific acts, and have killed Muslims more than anybody else.

The other reason it’s important for us to remember that is because we’ve got millions of Muslim Americans, our fellow citizens, in this country. They’re going to school with our kids. They’re our neighbors. They’re our friends. They’re our co-workers.

And, you know, when we start acting as if their religion is somehow offensive, what are we saying to them?

: I’ve got Muslims who are fighting in Afghanistan in the uniform of the United States armed services. They’re out there putting their lives on the line for us, and we’ve got to make sure that we are crystal clear, for our sakes and their sakes, they are Americans, and we honor their service.

And part of honoring their service is making sure that they understand that we don’t differentiate between them and us. It’s just us. And that is a principle that I think is — is — is going to be very important for us to — to sustain. And I think tomorrow is an excellent time for us to — to reflect on that.

Thank you very much, everybody.

Topic: First Amendment, Ground Zero Mosque, Islam, President Obama

Government Not Wasting Money On Porn Obscenity Prosecutions

2:52 pm EST June 16th, 2010 | Conservative | 5 Comments

You would think conservatives would be happy the government isn’t wasting our money on something, but you would be wrong about our domestic mullahs.

Topic: First Amendment

Culture Scolds @ PTC Target Android For Porn

5:47 pm EST May 2nd, 2010 | Media | 10 Comments

Parents Television Council, the culture scold arm of the right-wing Media Research Center, is lashing out against the Android App Store because those stores show too much flesh for the PTC’s clerics.

It’s weird when people who freak out over Muslims have so much in common with the cultural savagery of Islamic extremists.

Topic: Android, First Amendment, Porn, PTC, Sex

Utah Has A Problem: PORN

11:13 pm EST October 4th, 2009 | Uncategorized | 65 Comments

Sorry, but this is hilarious.

Saturday night in downtown Salt Lake City and many people are talking about porn in Utah. David Clark Jr. of Provo said, ‘I believe that since this is the true church Satan works harder on members.’

Elder Richard G. Scott at General Conference Saturday spoke similar words about pornography. Scott said,’ This potent tool of Lucifer degrades the mind and heart and soul of any who use it.’

Some say people in Utah are vieweing porn more than any other state in the country after a study earlier this year by a Harvard economics professor. Professor Benjamin Edelman tracked subscriptions to online porn sites. He discovered that Utah is number one in the nation in online porn.

Of course, the big religious influence in Utah is the Mormon church. That state probably has the tightest combination of church-state relations as we have in the U.S., and Utah regularly votes the most Republican (62% for McCain in 2008). But the anonymity of the Internet has unmasked the fact that the loudest most pious voices out there are as debauched as the rest of us.

Topic: First Amendment, Religious Right

Its 2009, Why Are We Still Prosecuting People For “Obscenity”?

6:36 pm EST July 1st, 2009 | Uncategorized | 91 Comments

There’s this thing called the first amendment, and even sickos get the benefit of it. At least they should.

A California-based company that produced and distributed obscene materials and its owners were sentenced in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh today for violating federal obscenity laws, U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan announced.

U.S. District Judge Gary L. Lancaster sentenced Extreme Associates, Inc., co-owners Robert Zicari, aka Rob Black, 35, and his wife, Janet Romano, aka Lizzie Borden, 32, both of Northridge, Calif., to one year and one day in prison. Extreme Associates, Zicari and Romano pleaded guilty on March 11, 2009, to a felony charge of conspiracy to distribute obscene material through the mails and over the Internet. Through their plea agreements, the company and its owners acknowledged responsibility for the conduct charged in Counts 2 through 10 of the indictment – distributing three videos through the mail and six individual video clips over the Internet to Western Pennsylvania. In addition, they forfeited to the United States the Internet domain name, extremeassociates.com, which was used to commit the violations. The company is now defunct.

‘Extreme Associates produced and distributed sexually degrading material that portrayed women in the most vile and depraved manner imaginable,’ stated Ms. Buchanan. ‘These prison sentences affirm the need to continue to protect the public from obscene, lewd, lascivious or filthy material, the production of which degrades all of us,’ she added.

Topic: First Amendment

Congress Shall Make No Law

12:48 pm EST June 11th, 2008 | Uncategorized | 20 Comments

A bunch of pointy headed morons want us to relax the first amendment because some unbalanced zealots and religious nimrods use it to justify their actions.

Look, if we don’t have the first amendment, America might as well close up shop and go home. I don’t care who takes offense to speech: Christian, Muslim, Atheist, whatever. Go screw yourself before you think you’ve got any standing to touch the first amendment.

Mark Steyn is an idiot, but this show trial with Maclean’s magazine in Canada is the height of stupid, as is the Florida trial versus pornographer Max Hardcore. I’m sorry, but should all be protected speech, be it xenophobic hatemongering or sicko adult films. ALL PROTECTED.

It’s really pretty simple:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Topic: First Amendment

Priorities

3:03 am EST April 16th, 2008 | Uncategorized | 5 Comments

What John Stagliano is doing is perfectly legal and falls under the first amendment.

A grand jury has socked Stagliano with eight obscenity violations for selling adult videos online and via unmarked packing envelopes shipped by the U.S. Postal Service. None of the films contain children. This is not a child-porn case.

Since the feds have had minimal luck over the years going after the makers of standard smut, this time they’re taking a kinkier approach, targeting Stagliano for films aimed at fans of fluid fetishes.

At the same time the feds waste money prosecuting this man, we lack funds to go after child abusers.

More than 624,000 computers in the USA have traded child pornography, much of it showing the sexual abuse of very young children, in the past 2½ years, a leading police authority planned to tell Congress at a hearing Wednesday.
Yet federal authorities with limited resources pursue fewer than 1% of the leads, according to a USA TODAY analysis of government data.

Prosecute the free speech of consenting adults doing what they please, but when it comes to protecting children from the worst sort of crime short of murder and hands are tied.

What the hell?

Topic: Crime, First Amendment