[at-l] OT - Freedom of Speech was Snowshoeing VS Hiking

[Jim and_or Ginny Owen]

I won't be answering any particular post here - and in fact, I'm of two minds about this 

subject. But I think there's a lot of misunderstanding about WHY the decision was made.  

So I'm gonna drop a few selected quotes from a legal blog and let you think about them.  

Which is what I'm doing - thinking about them.  

 

These quotes are not an expression of "my" opinion.  Nor are they an argument in favor 

of the decision.  They ARE something that I've not heard argued by anybody here or on 

any other hiking forum yet. And they NEED to be considered before too many people 

shoot from the lip here. So....

 

>One of the standard arguments put forward by critics of the Supreme Court’s decision 

>protecting corporate political speech in Citizens United is that people aren’t entitled to 

>constitutional rights when they use corporate resources because corporations are 

>“state-created entities.” 

 

>On this view, the government would be free to censor the New York Times, Fox News, 

>the Nation, National Review, and so on. Nearly every newspaper and political journal in 

>the country is a corporation.

 

>If people using state-created entities don’t have free speech rights, they don’t have 

>any other constitutional rights either. After all, the supposed power to define the rights 

>of state-created entities isn’t limited to free speech rights. Thus, government would not 

>be bound by the Fourth Amendment in searching corporate property (including employee 

>offices). It could take corporate property for private use without paying compensation 

>because the Fifth Amendment would no longer apply. It could forbid religious services on 

>corporate property (including that owned by churches, most of which are after all nonprofit 

>corporations). If the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment doesn’t apply to corporate 

>property, neither does the Free Exercise Clause. And so on.

 

>So government could enact laws requiring citizens to limit their political speech in exactly 

>the same ways in which corporate speech can be limited (or at least condition their continued 

>status as citizens on obedience to the government’s censorship rules). 

 

Read the whole thing - 

http://volokh.com/2010/01/22/should-people-acting-through-corporations-be-denied-constitutional-rights-because-corporations-are-state-created-entities/

 

Finally - regardless of your agreement or disagreement, the decision was made.  Regardless of 

the rhetoric from Obama, Senators, Congressmen, governors, whatever -  the decision was made.  

And like Roe vs Wade, regardless of agreement or opposition, it's now the law of the land and we 

all get to live with it.  There is no legislative "fix".  There is no administrative "fix".  Anyone who 

tells you there is - is simply lying.  At least until this country becomes a dictatorship.  


Walk softly,

Jim


http://www.spiriteaglehome.com/


 		 	   		  
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