Category: First Amendment rights

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First Amendment rights

Don’t Outlaw the First Amendment

Should Doug Guetzloe go to jail for speaking his mind?

I say No.

That’s not State Attorney Lawson Lamar’s answer. Lamar tried to imprison Guetzloe for 14 years.

In 2006, Doug Guetzloe distributed a flyer about mayoral candidate David Strong to Winter Park, Florida, residents. It pertained to an embarrassing dustup Strong had with a neighbor. The police report Guetzloe quoted is publicly available. The alleged crime is not libel.

Lamar charged Guetzloe with violating Florida’s election laws. One is supposed to include a disclaimer with any paid electioneering communication saying it’s an electioneering communication. The flyer did not advocate voting for or against any candidate. Not that doing so should jeopardize anyone’s liberty either.

Guetzloe pled no contest, thinking any penalty would be trivial. But he was sentenced to 60 days in jail and $8500 in fines. The easiest path might still have been to just do the time and pay the fine. But Guetzloe has been fighting back, spending a small fortune on legal fees.

Late in 2008, his attorneys filed a motion with the U.S. Supreme Court, asking it to declare Florida’s Electioneering Communications law to be unconstitutional. A little earlier, a federal judge had restrained the State of Florida from enforcing that law.

There is only one right ruling here. The high court should uphold the right to freedom of speech.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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Common Sense First Amendment rights

More than a Breach of Professional Ethics?

The Oklahoma Educational Television Authority has a mission, to provide “Public Television For All of Oklahoma.”

And its top-listed production is news.

Oklahoma Educational Television Authority website
Oklahoma Educational Television Authority

And yet when the non-profit organization I work with, the Citizens in Charge Foundation, sent out a press release to OETA — that’s the outfit’s acronym — OETA sent an official complaint to our Web host, calling the press release spam.

Our former Web host, Hostica, shut down our site and our email.

This is the second time this happened. Obviously, we won’t be sending any more press releases to that news source.

But think about this. OETA is in the news biz. For it to call a press release “spam” — unwanted — is not just nasty, it’s an astounding breach of professional ethics. It’s like a weather man refusing to cover snow, or a preacher refusing to talk about God, or . . . a politician refusing to read the Constitution.

Now, it could be that we sent the press release to the wrong department. Their proper response? Forward it to the right people, then reply back.

But email routing is not what this is all about. Our press release covered a story that put a top Oklahoma politician in bad light. The public TV folk in Oklahoma aren’t independent. Being all-too-political, OETA — or someone at OETA — attempted to squelch our speech rights.

So I ask you: What should our response be?

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
First Amendment rights initiative, referendum, and recall national politics & policies

The Oklahoma Three, Free at Last

It seemed hardly necessary. The handcuffs and leg-irons, I mean. I wasn’t a threat to anybody. Neither were Rick Carpenter and Susan Johnson.

We had been charged with “conspiracy to defraud the state of Oklahoma” for our work to put a spending cap on the ballot.

The metal constraints were for show — to intimidate us and to scare the good citizens of Oklahoma.

The threatened penalty of ten years in prison was scary, too.

Being innocent, we defended our rights, even as the persecution dragged on for a year and half. Not even a preliminary hearing had been completed. Folks wondered if Attorney General Drew Edmondson was more interested in tying us up politically than in prosecuting us legally.

We never got our day in court; the Constitution intervened. Not only did we not break Oklahoma’s residency law, the federal Tenth Circuit declared the law itself an unconstitutional violation of our First Amendment rights.

So, on January 22nd, the AG dismissed the charges. It was a great day — for all of us.

But the underlying mindset of the original law and prosecution remains. Legislators continue to enact unconstitutional impediments against citizen use of ballot initiatives and recall petitions. Too often, officials seek to punish citizens who assert their rights.

Citizens in chains cannot control their government. That’s why, working with the group Citizens in Charge Foundation, I’ll keep fighting.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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First Amendment rights general freedom local leaders

Annoyed by Anti-Annoyance Law

I’m annoyed by a new law passed in the Michigan town of Brighton City.

According to the ordinance, police may fine anyone who is too annoying in public. Up to $500. The ordinance states: “It shall be unlawful for a person to engage in a course of conduct or repeatedly commit acts that alarm or seriously annoy another person and that serve no legitimate purpose.”

Obviously, many different things annoy many different people, most having little to do with the possible or actual commission of a crime.

If you and I are annoyed, think about how annoyed the folks are who actually live there. One resident, Charles Griffin, told ABC News that the new law is “the most ridiculous thing in the world.”

Area resident Chetly Zarko has written to the council asking them to repeal the law, arguing that it is “unconstitutionally vague . . . and impedes on free expression rights under the First Amendment.”

Council members say critics are blowing things out of proportion. They say people aren’t going to be ticketed for talking too loud or making complaints to public officials, but for things like persistent harassment of an ex-girlfriend or the like.

But words mean what they say, don’t they? They don’t mean what they would have meant if only you had said what you meant.

In the spirit of being careful with words, let me revise my opening statement: I am more than merely annoyed.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
ballot access First Amendment rights initiative, referendum, and recall

Feeling Sorry for Oklahoma?

I’m beginning to feel sorry for Oklahoma.

That may seem a little strange to regular readers. They know that Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson is prosecuting me, along with two other activists, for work on a 2005 petition drive to cap state spending. He’s trying to throw us in prison for ten years.

This legal assault is “unjust” and “politically-motivated.” Those words aren’t mine: An Oklahoma City University law professor argued that this prosecution is “unjust,” and a state senator charged the AG’s actions are “politically-motivated.”

Since Edmondson began his chilling attack on the right to petition one’s government, poor Oklahoma has been compared to some horribly tyrannical regimes. An editorial in Forbes asked, “Has Oklahoma Been Annexed by North Korea?” A Wall Street Journal editorial connected the Sooner State to the kind of repression practiced in Pakistan.

And now, columnist Paul Mulshine with the New Jersey Star Ledger condemns Edmondson, saying Russia’s Vladimir Putin “could learn a thing or two from the Oklahoma boys.”

But wait a second. There are great people in Oklahoma. They don’t support this outrageous abuse of power.

As those of us threatened in Oklahoma finally have our preliminary hearing, I’m confident that this vicious attack has awoken Oklahomans . . . and Americans. Eyes wide open, Americans in Oklahoma and elsewhere will fight to protect the initiative process.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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First Amendment rights

An Unfair Doctrine

What is the “Fairness Doctrine”? And would it be fair to bring it back?

The Fairness Doctrine is a kind of assault on broadcast speech that has not been enforced since the 1980s. It compelled broadcasters to give so-called “equal time” to the so-called “opposing viewpoint” . . . as if there were only one. We may have a two-party system in this country, but we don’t have a two-opinion system.

Of course, the doctrine is nothing but a club for clobbering freedom of speech, not expanding it.

At National Review Online, Barbara Comstock and Lanny Davis note that all manner of absurdity erupts when equal time to somebody else’s podium is guaranteed by law. In 1978, NBC aired a program about the Holocaust, then spent three years in court dealing with a lawsuit brought by a group which believed the Holocaust is a myth and wanted NBC to give it “equal time.” Only “fair,” right?

Today, many believe that the Fairness Doctrine would be used against conservative talk radio, which happens to be a lot more popular than liberal talk radio, and that this is why some on the political left are talking about restoring the rule. But nobody who talks in public for a living, or even as just a hobby, would be safe from harassment if this monstrosity comes back to life. Comstock and Davis say Congress should bury the Fairness Doctrine for good.

Yes, with a stake through its evil heart.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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First Amendment rights

Florida Anti-Speech Tyranny

The Broward Coalition of Condominiums, Homeowners Associations and Community Organizations, Inc., regularly puts out newsletters. No surprise. Lots of organizations do.

This Florida organization, though, does something more. Its newsletters regularly feature political subjects. Nothing shocking about that, either. This is America, right?

Well, yes. But the First Amendment has been abridged. In Florida, especially, there exist onerous “electioneering communications” laws that squelch the kind of speech that the Broward Coalition engages in.

Florida law requires any group of people to register with the government if the group mentions a candidate or ballot issue in any media — electronic, paper, or plastic — and to report all of its spending and funding sources, too.

That kind of oppressive control is what started the American Revolution. Fortunately, we have a less violent way of opposing speech tyranny today.

The Broward Coalition has joined with the National Taxpayers Union and the University of Florida College Libertarians to file suit. Represented by the Institute for Justice, they charge that the law regulating their speech goes against the First Amendment.

Bert Gall, IJ senior attorney, puts it exactly right when he insists that “Florida’s law is part of a growing trend of shutting up and shutting out anyone but political pros from politics.”

And that trend must be stopped.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
First Amendment rights insider corruption

Shocker: Criminal Web Links!

Aliens take over government! Soviets control U.S. weather! Ancient Mayan temple has Sandisk flash drive!

If you’ve ever been to a supermarket, you’ve seen these and other ludicrous mile-high headlines blaring from the newsstands.

Here’s another impossible headline that might issue from the pen of any zany, unscrupulous tabloid fabulist: BLOGGER TREATED AS CRIMINAL FOR POSTING WEB LINK TO CITY AGENCY!

Not a concoction, I’m afraid. The city of Sheboygan, Wisconsin, did indeed harass a blogger named Jennifer Reisinger for linking to the website of the city police department. No alleged libel, alleged copyright violation, or other alleged crime. Ms. Reisinger and her lawyer believe the threat was retaliation for her role in trying to recall the Sheboygan mayor, Juan Perez.

Intimidated by the unprecedented cease-and-desist order she received from the city attorney, Reisinger at first removed the link. But then, after being threatened with a criminal investigation for her dastardly providing of information, she hired a lawyer. The lawyer advised her to restore the Web link, which she did. The mayor’s office dropped its threat, but Reisinger is suing anyway.

Mayor Perez and his henchmen deserve to be stomped in court — if only to pre-empt similar stupidity and contempt for First Amendment rights by other vindictive politicians.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
Common Sense First Amendment rights general freedom too much government

Happy Birthday, Mr. Jefferson?

Can you get arrested for celebrating Jefferson’s birthday?

I’ve just received an alert from Jason Talley, the former publisher of Bureaucrash.com. Jason remains active trying to get people to think about freedom. He’s made a lot of noise . . . by being silent.

His most recent effort seemed innocuous enough: A ten-minute “silent dance,” abetted by iPods, at the Jefferson Memorial on April 13. That’s Thomas Jefferson’s birthday. The 20 or so participants celebrated in a perhaps startling way. The group performed their dance late in the day, midnight actually, so as not to interfere with the experience of other visitors.

Well, after a few minutes, security at the memorial leapt into action to expel the dancers. One was even arrested. Her sin? Asking “Why?” In a local NBC news report Jason points out that the dancers were silent, which video confirms. So there isn’t much weight to claims that they were disturbing the peace. School kids visiting the monument are rowdier. Jason says he hopes police don’t start arresting school kids.

Videos of the incident at YouTube have already been viewed by tens of thousands. A “Free the Jefferson 1″ blog and Facebook and Flicker and Twitter accounts are helping spread the word. When the charges are dropped, it’ll all stop.

Tom Jefferson once said, “Dancing is a healthy and elegant exercise.” And he didn’t even own an iPod.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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Common Sense First Amendment rights initiative, referendum, and recall

I&R’s Great Track Record

Do citizen initiative rights give voters or give special interests “too much” power to pass bad laws?

Sure, bad initiatives sometimes pass. But as Eric Dixon points out at the Show-Me Institute blog, our intermittently esteemed representatives do not religiously avoid passing bad bills. Lawmakers enact lousy laws galore.

Dixon argues that the track record of citizen initiative is actually pretty good. “For every misguided minimum wage increase and tax hike that voters pass,” he writes, “there are dozens of initiatives that have cut taxes, slashed spending, passed term limits . . .” He also says that ballot initiatives make elected officials much more accountable than would otherwise be the case.

Exactly, Mr. Dixon.

There even seems to be a kind of multiplier effect. More good has come from California’s Proposition 13 than bad has come from all the bad initiatives passed in all the states over the past century. After all, it sparked a tax revolt nationwide.

We enjoy disproportionate benefits from initiative rights because the good things that come from them are nearly impossible to get from legislatures. Meanwhile, the bad things typically expand the power of politicians – so, politicians are inclined to enact them anyway.

Besides, it’s easier for special interests to persuade or bribe a handful of politicians than influence a majority of voters. So, to block and reverse the bad stuff, the citizen initiative sure comes in handy.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.