Daily Archives: March 23, 2012

SAN DIEGO (AP) A Marine facing dismissal for running a Facebook page called Armed Forces Tea Party that criticizes the Obama administration is still speaking out but has been getting little support from military law experts and free speech advocates who say he may have crossed the line.

Sgt. Gary Stein planned to speak at a tea party meeting in San Diego County later Thursday, a day after the Marine Corps notified him that it is moving to dismiss him for violating the Pentagon's policy barring troops from engaging in political activities.

The military has had a policy since the Civil War limiting the free speech of service members, including criticizing the commander in chief.

David Loy, of the American Civil Liberties Union in San Diego County, said he has not followed Stein's case closely, but that based on what he has seen in the media he thinks there may be a legitimate concern on the part of the Corps about Stein appearing to be speaking as a member of the armed forces because of his Facebook page's name.

"The military has a very strong interest and appropriately so to remaining neutral," he said. "The last thing we want is our military taking side on political issues."

Former Navy officer David Glazier, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, agreed.

"He's really rubbing the government's nose in it," he said. "It's really hard to have sympathy for him."

Stein said he is not swayed. He said he received hundreds of emails from service members and the public in support of him.

"They're entitled to their opinions but I still think this is a freedom of speech issue," Stein said. "I'm standing up for the Constitution."

Stein, a nine-year member of the Corps, said he started the page to encourage fellow service members to exercise their free speech rights.

See the rest here:
Marine still outspoken despite facing dismissal

There is a new federal law on the books that we should all be aware of because it directly affects our freedom of speech. When proposed, it was called the Trespassing Bill. Its HR 347, the Federal Restricted Buildings and Grounds Improvement Act. U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, voted for it.

The law makes it a federal crime to exercise your right of free speech in any area the Secret Service designates as a no speech zone. Our country was founded on free speech ideals, and this goes against the grain of what it means to be an American, to say we cant stand on a street corner to protest against anything we choose the color of the sky, the Giants winning the Superbowl, the policies of our elected officials and so forth.

As for the Secret Services designation, how the heck would anyone be able to figure that out? Isnt the very nature of their work secret? It reminds me of the scene from the movie Animal House, where fraternity members are placed on double-secret probation by the headmaster. Only in our case, the penalty is not expulsion from school, but incarceration as a felon.

KIMBERLY GILBERT Putnam

Read the original:
Letter to the editor: Recent federal law will deny free speech