Saturday, August 02, 2014

Civil Liberties Watch

Woke up this morning hearing a debate from that silly NPR series on the resolution that
INDIVIDUALS AND ORGANIZATIONS HAVE A CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT TO UNLIMITED SPENDING ON THEIR OWN POLITICAL SPEECH
which I thought should be pretty interesting as not a boring old Republican vs. Democrat issue but one in which progressives are aligned on both sides, the ACLU itself notoriously having come down on the side of Citizens United. Sadly, it was not; the most interesting thing was former ACLU head Nadine Strossen arguing, for the proposition, that there are cases when it is legitimate to yell "Fire!" in a crowded theater—like when there is actually a fire.

No! No! No! That is the worst time to yell "Fire!" in a crowded theater. If you become aware that a crowded theater is on fire, you should quietly let the management know so that everybody can be safely evacuated. Yelling "Fire!" is the way to start a panic and jam the exits and you will all die.

The worst was that my candidate for New York governor, Zephyr Teachout, arguing against the proposition, didn't call her on it. Come on, Zephyr, you can do better than that.
Lois Lane setting a terrible example.
Cross-posted at The Rectification of Names.

1 comment:

  1. Oddly, to find out what is or is not constitutional you have to consider the text of the constitution and not your own notions about what's best, what makes sense, etc.

    Oddly, that's a rule judges ignore as often as anyone else.

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