Joe Doakes from Como Park writes:
Two jerks yelling and waving signs about animal rights outside your store for half an hour, scaring away customers and reminding you they know where you live and where your family lives: protected by the First Amendment.
A bunch of people yelling and waving signs protesting government gay rights policy outside your soldier-son’s funeral: protected by the First Amendment.
A mob of union thugs yelling and waving signs protesting economic policy outside your home while your kids are home alone: protected by the First Amendment.
Yes, this is what Jefferson and Madison had in mind for a civilized society, I’m certain of it.
I’m pretty sure Jefferson and Madison knew that democracy had a downside, and that it could withstand having one.
Of course, I’m not sure they foresaw how stupid some Americans would get…
but someone praying outside an abortion mill, inside a school building, or in Dearborn, MI, Must be stopped.
Jefferson and Madison knew that democracy was dangerous, and so we were given a republic in its stead. Jefferson was much more sympathetic to the idea of pure democracy, but he also longed for an agrarian society and knew it would be impossible in a city-based one.
I wonder how the appeals court judges would have voted if Rocko and Moose had stopped by the judge’s chambers and stood there cracking their knuckles while Rocko said: “Ya know, judge, we think laws against racketeering are wrong and we’re here to protest dem. By the way, nice house ya got over there on Riverview Drive, and that’s quite the pretty daughter ya got up at Saint Ben’s. Be a shame if anything happened to either of them whilse ya was decidin this here case, ya know what I mean?”
First Amendment protest or threat of domestic terrorism? Let’s ask Joel R whether judges have the same rules for themselves as they set for other people.
Okay, I’ll bite — “Nice house you’ve got here; shame if something were to happen to it” can be anywhere from a helpful comment on how the homeowner really should cut down the decaying oak that’s going to fall on it, sooner or later, to an attempt at extortion.
It’s tricky, in practice. Easy to stand back and see that some of what’s called “protest” is just thuggery (or worse); it’s also easy to see that some of what’s called violent protest really isn’t, and that the accusation that it is has been used as a political (and often legal) attack. (Remember the guy in New Hampshire who open-carried next to a road that President Obama was going to be traveling down in his bulletproof Presidential limo hours later, and how the media left went absolutely, err, ballistic? As a practical matter, even if the guy meant some harm to Obama — he didn’t — he couldn’t have, but the tinglerunninguptheleg crowd was appalled that some judge didn’t issue a lettre de cachet immediately.)
And it’s worth remembering that in Jefferson’s time, political, social, and religious commentary ranged from the polite to the very much not so… and that includes Jefferson, himself. “And the day will come, when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the Supreme Being as His Father, in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva, in the brain of Jupiter.”
Can you imagine a President saying that these days? (No, I’m not picking on anybody’s religion — but Jefferson certainly was.)
“The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.”
The problem with the incidents that Joe Doakes cites is that they verge on being serious threats. (I think they only “verge.”) As to the Phelpses, my two favorite counterprotest examples are the Freedom Riders, and the guy who hit on Fred Phelps, sending his tiny little into vapor lock.
who hit on Freddy Phelps and where can I see video of this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kF5mfG0vO8o