More on the 1st Amendment

I’ve been noticing a higher number of Constitutional issues hitting the news lately. Some of them, like the library internet porn filters are because the Supreme Court is about to hear a case of the matter. Others, like the man arrested after refusing to remove an anti-war shirt, seem to be an a case of Americans infringing on others rights in the name of patriotism or security.

Both of these issue you will notice deal with the First Amendment. Our freedom of speech and expression seems to be under some pretty good pressure these days – more than it normally is. One of the virtues of American society is that we permit someone to express the true feelings on an issue, no matter how foul their opinion might be. The US is the only country in the world where our military have proudly died for David Duke’s right to be a bigoted, racist moron.

I am really bothered by the gentleman who was arrested after refusing to take off an anti-war shirt. Apparently he was in a mall and security asked him to remove the shirt. He refused. Security then brought over a police office who repeated the request and when the man refused again he was arrested for trespassing. The arresting officer should have taken the initiative to stop this fiasco before it got this far out of hand. I realize that the mall is private property and that the management does have the right to remove anyone from the premises for any reason, but this was a weak, heavy handed attempt by an overzealous security guard (it would appear) to impose on the patron’s right of free expression.

The internet porn filters is libraries is another interesting First Amendment case. I believe that there is a need to shelter children from pornography. I also believe that for someone to be downloading porn in a public place, like a library, is the height of inconsideration. It is also illegal in most jurisdictions as it is potentially making adult materials available to be viewed by children under the age of 18. Instead of using porn filters that also block a large number of useful sites, local governments need to look at a two pronged approach to stopping the access of porn of library computers. First, there are programs that will block access only to certain discrete sites. Local government could then use the powers it is allowed under obscenity statutes to show that particular sites run counter to the public’s sense of decency and those sites could be blocked – on a one by one basis. Second, laws regarding the distribution of pornography to minors need to be more stringently enforced in library situations. It’s more time consuming to take this two pronged approach, but it does allow for the maximum usefulness of the internet in libraries, while blocking dangerous sites and complying with the First Amendment.

Protecting our rights to free speech is one of the toughest on-going tasks we face in the US today. Sometimes it means putting up with hearing something we’d rather not hear. Sometimes it means dealing with a slower and more inconvenient procedure for protecting our children. But the First Amendment is about life or death. It’s about words and expression. It is also one of the most important founding principles of this nation. We need to take the time to weigh every possible option before even giving the appearance of infringing those valuable rights.