1st Amendment

"Thirty-five minutes into the speech we were approached by a woman who identified herself as a deputy U.S. marshal," Ms. Konz told me in a telephone conversation on Friday. "She said that we should not be recording and that she needed to have our tapes."

In the U.S., this is a no-no. Justice Scalia and his colleagues on the court are responsible for guaranteeing such safeguards against tyranny as freedom of the press. In fact, the speech Mr. Scalia was giving at the very moment the marshal moved against the two reporters was about the importance of the Constitution.

Ms. Konz said neither she nor Ms. Grones wanted to comply with the marshal's demand.

Scalia has already apologized and indicated that the marshals were not acting in accordance with his wishes or instructions. In light of that I don't have much of a bone to pick with him. The marshals, however, have clearly absolutely no comprehension of the limitations upon their powers.

"If action is taken without the authority of the Security Council the legitimacy and support for any such action would be seriously impaired," U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said today. Authority of the United Nations Security Council?! When did the United Nations become the world's supreme government? When did Americans (military and civilian) pledge their allegiance to the flag of the United Nations, instead of the United States? When did Americans (military and civilian) swear to uphold the Charter of the United Nations and denounce the Constitution of the United States?

City officials condemned a Manhattan Libertarian Party member who held a Guns for Tots toy drive outside a public school and gave fake guns to children. Jim Lesczynski said he handed out the imitation weapons in front of P.S. 72 in East Harlem on Thursday in response to a bill that would ban the guns' sale or possession. ``Water pistols, noise makers and other plastic gun-shaped novelties are the stuff of any red-blooded American childhood,'' Lesczynski said at a City Council committee hearing on the bill earlier in the day.

Someone might want to point out to those city officials that people DO have freedom of speech, here. And the freedom to own and sell toys, including toy guns. If the city wants to discourage criminals from using fake guns, then it should make the penalty for committing a crime with a fake gun the same as the penalty for committing a crime with a real gun. But I guess that's just too logical to stomach.

The members of the House/Senate conference committee on the omnibus appropriations bill have been selected. These are the people who will decide whether or not Congressman Ron Paul's moratorium on the "unique health identifier" stays in the bill. We might have only a few days. The conference committee will likely finish its work next week. Please act now.

Thank you for responding to our alert "American babies are next." Here's the urgent action we can now take.

The members of the House/Senate conference committee on the omnibus appropriations bill have been selected. These are the people who will decide whether or not Congressman Ron Paul's moratorium on the "unique health identifier" stays in the bill.

We might have only a few days. The conference committee will likely finish its work next week. Please act now.

Don't be confused. The social engineers behind Hillary Clinton's health care scheme don't want to use the Social Security number -- they would have done that already if they did! It isn't sophisticated enough and nobody could be made to believe it is a confidential number that would guard privacy of your personal medical records. Even with the new "unique health identifier," medical privacy is a complete hoax -- but it's an easier hoax to sell to an unsuspecting, gullible public.

Remember too, what you do matters! The Liberty Committee stopped the national ID card in 1999 with the same lobbying tactic we are using here: focusing informed public opinion on the behind-closed-doors workings of a conference committee. Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey called our work "a classic victory of freedom over 'Big Brother,'" and went public to congratulate Congressman Ron Paul on acting "quickly [so] no American will have to carry a National ID Card."

This time, let's see that no American baby is "branded," ever, with a cradle-to-grave "unique health identifier" that will usher in Hillary Clinton's diabolical health care scheme.

First -- check the list of conference committee members. If a committee member is from your state, call or fax him. Urge him to keep the moratorium on the "unique health identifier" part of the omnibus appropriations bill. The moratorium is section 513.

List of Conference Committee Members for Omnibus Appropriations Bill http://www.thelibertycommittee.org/conferees.htm

If there isn't a conference committee member from your state, contact your congressional delegation to get their help with the committee members. To send an E-mail to your delegation, go to http://capwiz.com/liberty/issues/alert/?alertid=1329246&type=CO

Thank you to those of you who made a donation. We will place a banner ad on popular Web sites to inform others and enlist their help.

Kent Snyder The Liberty Committee

When John Ashcroft was nominated for attorney general, his political enemies spent a lot of time mocking him for belonging to a denomination that does not allow its members to engage in dancing. Since taking office, Mr. Ashcroft has done absolutely nothing to infringe upon the rights of people who like to dance. Tom Daschle, however, is now pushing legislation that could send dance promoters to federal prison for up to 20 years. Daschle's anti-dancing legislation is a mean-spirited assault on youth culture, and an extreme violation of principles of federalism.

Freedom of association, anyone?

The Houston police captain who ordered the arrests of 303 people at westside raids was fired Wednesday, ending a five-month investigation that tarnished the careers of 32 officers and cost the department $123,000. Acting Police Chief Tim Oettmeier announced Mark Aguirre's firing during his report to City Council on the August raids targeting drag racing. He said 31 other officers were disciplined. "The intentional bad acts of a certain few were exacerbated by an ignorance of the law, ineffective management, lackadaisical supervision and just plain sloppy police work," Oettmeier said.

Justice. It's rare, but savor the taste.

The Violence Policy Center (VPC) today released "Just Like Bird Hunting"ýThe Threat to Civil Aviation from 50 Caliber Sniper Rifles, which details the threat of military-bred 50 caliber sniper rifles to aviation and passengers throughout the United States. The 32-page study discusses the range and striking power of the 50 caliber sniper rifle and its ammunition in the context of potential terrorist attacks against civilian airports and aircraft.

This is direct from the Violence Policy Center, trying to link .50 caliber rifles to terrorism. Sorry, doesn't work.

The National Rifle Association (NRA) is pushing its own version of tort reform in the form of a bill that would protect gun dealers and manufacturers from civil liability suits when a weapon they sell is used to commit a crime. Last year, 47 senators and 232 House members signed on as cosponsors of the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, which NRA lobbyists say is their top priority on Capitol Hill this year. The legislation never went to the full House for a vote, but will likely be reintroduced in this session.

The Supreme Court refused Tuesday to revive a lawsuit that blamed Hollywood for a school shooting in Kentucky. The case questioned the responsibility of moviemakers and other entertainment companies for video games and other products that feature violence. The court did not comment in rejecting an appeal filed by the families of three girls killed in 1997 at a high school near Paducah, Ky. They argued that entertainment companies were wrongly using the First Amendment free speech protection to shield themselves from lawsuits. So why can't they apply this reasoning to the 2nd?

President Bush says he has not yet decided whether to go to war with Iraq, but this week the signs were that he had all but given up on peace. Administration hawks, who had been worrying that American resolve would dissipate during a prolonged game of inspection cat-and-mouse, are suddenly being sent forth to proclaim the weapons hunt a farce. State Department officials, who thought they had maneuvered us off the short road to war, seem resigned to the fact that they have probably failed.

The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 is now before the federal courts on an expedited schedule. An initial decision is expected within weeks. The Supreme Court will take the case immediately, hear the arguments, and hand down its decision within a few months. Various plaintiffs argue that several provisions of the act are unconstitutional, particularly those that would inhibit the rights of "interest groups" to communicate positions of candidates for office. But one plaintiff ý Rep. Ron Paul, Texas Republican, and his associates ý urges the court to throw out virtually the entire act, as well as the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1994, as constituting unconstitutional restraints on freedom of the press ý the right of everyone to communicate their views on any subject, without prior government approval.

Having been outwitted by a pair of itinerant snipers who killed six of a dozen victims in their county of Montgomery, Maryland, police of said county are trying to salvage something. They have formed a task force. Not to discover what made it so easy to kill at random in their jurisdiction, a status that still obtains, but to try to find out if any of those 70,000 tips they received during the October shooting rampage might lead to criminality.

The gun control debate is like a boxing match. Specifically, it's like a boxing match in which the pro-gun-rights fighter blocks but never hits back.

JOHN LOTT is being accused, of well, something. The complaint doesn't run to his published scholarly work, but to public statements he's made about a survey whose results were never published. Some people are now saying that he never conducted the survey at all. Here's an email from James Lindgren from a list that I also belong to, posted by vociferous Lott critic (and, if I recall correctly, erstwhile Bellesiles defender) Tim Lambert, that lays it out at some length.

Ban on assault weapons. Provides that the manufacture, importation, sale, or possession of ammunition for a machine gun, an automatic weapon, or a semiautomatic weapon is a Class C felony. Creates enhanced criminal penalties for a person who commits certain drug offenses while in possession of an automatic or a semiautomatic weapon.

Let's see.... bans ammunition. Period. Sneaky. Very sneaky.

An Albemarle County middle school student will not be allowed to wear his National Rifle Association T-shirt to school while his lawsuit against the school system is pending, a federal judge has ruled.

Move over, Miss Manners, politicians want to start correcting people's rude behavior - at least when it comes to talking on a cell phone.

In New York, the City Council is considering the nation's first law banning cell phone calls during indoor performances such as movies, concerts and Broadway plays. Call it cell phone etiquette for the chattering class.

THE United States edited out more than 8000 crucial pages of Iraq's 11,800-page dossier on weapons, before passing on a sanitised version to the 10 non-permanent members of the United Nations security council.

The full extent of Washington's complete control over who sees what in the crucial Iraqi dossier calls into question the allegations made by US Secretary of State Colin Powell that 'omissions' in the document constituted a 'material breach' of the latest UN resolution on Iraq.

Last week, Secretary General of the UN Kofi Annan accepted that it was 'unfortunate' that his organisation had allowed the US to take the only complete dossier and edit it. He admitted 'the approach and style were wrong' and Norway, a member of the security council, says it is being treated like a 'second-class country'.

Now this REALLY bugs me. How the hell are we supposed to evaluate whether Iraq is cooperating or not with this kind of crap going on? How is the rest of the UN supposed to? I mean, come ON; I could see the case for censoring a publically-released document, but censoring the copy you give to the UN??!

In November 2002 I wrote an article for this publication entitled "No More Excuses!" In that article, I observed that Republicans had bemoaned for 22 years that they did not have everything in place to decrease the size of government. "Reagan had to work with a Democratically controlled Senate," "Clinton was a 'tax-n-spend' liberal" were some of the excuses we heard over the years. Those few short months ago, the Democratic Party was melting down like a stick of butter in a hot pan. I noted that the Libertarian Party had been the "spoiler" in a few big U.S. Senate races and would cease to exist if the Republicans took a few small steps towards Liberty like ending the War on Drugs and replacing the income tax with a national sales tax. I speculated that it could take up to 2 years to see how far the Republicans would cut government.

Has Big Brother been watching you? If you've checked out books or surfed the Web at the local library or bookstore on subjects such as Islamic fundamentalism, nuclear reactors or bomb building, the FBI may know about it. It's a disconcerting possibility that is making some strange bedfellows on Capitol Hill. Both progressive liberals and conservatives who believe in a minimalist federal government are moving to repeal a section of the USA Patriot Act passed in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that allows federal agents to pull readers' records for little more than curiosity.

I'm always amazed at the logic of people who oppose others exercising their right to freedom of speech when the message is perceived as unpatriotic. We all have the right to express unpopular opinion. We didn't get that right from our government or even from the brave men and women who died defending that right.

Pennsylvania is the first - and only - state to try to tackle the thorny problem of fighting purveyors of illegal child pornography, which has become as pervasive on the Internet as legal sexually explicit sites.

This article is a fairly typical "the Internet as Evil" opinion piece masquerading as a news story. While it is probably true that child porn can be found on the Internet (it seems like everything else can be!), there are appropriate and measured responses to that -- specifically, finding the people making it and putting them in jail.

The PA law being referred to in this article was doomed to failure from the beginning, and in fact is an example of horrible laws written in a misguided and ignorant attempt to achieve a good end. In essence, it sought to block sites with "child pornography" by IP address from users in PA. It didn't seek to shut down the sites, since no jurisdictional claim could be upheld (unless the site was hosted in PA), merely to have that IP address filtered out.

Anyone familiar with web hosting knows that filtering out the IP address of one website is likely to take out a lot of other websites along with it, depending on the underlying details of the server environment. That's strike 1 against the law; it is not narrowly tailored and could not possibly survive a first-amendment challenge.

As if to make it worse, the blocking criteria was supposed to apply to PA users only. The way the internet is constructed, there is absolutely no reliable way to determine that information; some commercial services attempt to provide geographic targeting, but such services are expensive, incomplete, and easily evaded. Furthermore, imagine if every locality demanded that its own laws apply; the result would be a hodgepodge of patchwork that would raise internet costs substantially. More likely, though, ISPs would simply delete any website that garnered such a complaint -- which immediately becomes awkward should, say, Saudi Arabia try to apply its laws concerning pornography to the US internet.

The law itself is bad enough, but the attorney general of the state had been applying it "informally"; that is, instead of getting a court order, he had been sending "informal notices" to ISPs requesting that they block the site. This is certainly more convenient for the ISP and the AG. But it cuts out the judicial approval necessary for independent third-party review.

The PA law was an ill-advised, poorly-written law designed to abuse the concept of jurisdiction in order to make a political claim to local voters. Nothing more.

A federal court in Las Vegas Friday issued yet another order barring Irwin Schiff and two associates, Cynthia Neun and Lawrence N. Cohen, from selling their anti-tax material. U.S. District Judge Lloyd D. George has effectively banned Irwin Schiff's "The Federal Mafia: How It Illegally Imposes and Unlawfully Collects Income Taxes."

In what has been described as a significant victory for both the First Amendment and firearms owners, a lawsuit against the Montclair, New Jersey Board of Education brought by the Association of New Jersey Rifle & Pistol Clubs (ANJRPC) was resolved on May 20, 2003, in a court-ordered settlement in which the school board acknowledged violating its own policies and agreed to distribute the gun group's literature to its students. The settlement also required the school board to provide the gun group with ongoing access to the school system or else bar access to all groups via a change in official policy.

The public schools are little more than indoctrination centers as it is. This ruling is a breath of fresh air -- but I don't hold out much hope that it will change the system overall. On the other hand, it might force the school to stop using political propaganda in their lessons, simply for fear that the other side will be permitted their say, too.

On Tuesday the House narrowly passed the flag desecration amendment. This amendment would alter the First Amendment for the first time in its history and allow Congress to outlaw the physical desecration of the flag. By voting to protect a national symbol at the expense of the freedoms it represents, the amendment's supporters voted to fundamentally alter our freedom of speech and our ability to protest the policies of the government.

This is absurd, and it must not stand. Simply passing the House is not sufficient for a constitutional amendment, but it does mean we need to be even more vigilant.

From: Matt Howes, National Internet Organizer, ACLU
To: ACLU Action Network Members
Date: June 5, 2003

1) Speak Out: Flag Amendment Passes House - Thank or Spank Your Representative

On Tuesday the House narrowly passed the flag desecration amendment.  This amendment would alter the First Amendment for the first time in its history and allow Congress to outlaw the physical desecration of the flag. By voting to protect a national symbol at the expense of the freedoms it represents, the amendment's supporters voted to fundamentally alter our freedom of speech and our ability to protest the policies of the government.   

It is crucial that you to write your Representative and thank or spank them for their vote on the flag desecration amendment. 

Click here to find out how your Representative voted and to send a free fax: 

http://www.aclu.org/FreeSpeech/FreeSpeech.cfm?ID=12805&c=50

2) Wrong Answer to Victims' Rights

Just days after the House voted to amend the Constitution to ban desecration of the American flag, the Senate is expected to begin considering another unnecessary and dangerous constitutional amendment. This measure, the so-called Victim's Rights Amendment, would undermine the foundation of our justice system and the ability of the courts to operate in an impartial and fair manner.  It would affect everyone ever accused of a crime.

Thanks in large part to faxes and emails from activists like you, the flag desecration amendment passed the House by only 10 votes  (one Member of Congress said he was "papered to death" by the flood of concerned faxes and emails!).  We need to apply similar pressure in order to stop the so-called Victim's Rights Amendment.

Take Action! Help us stop the Victims' Rights Amendment in the Senate. Click here for more information and to send a free fax to your Senators.

http://www.aclu.org/CriminalJustice/CriminalJustice.cfm?ID=9955&c=249


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