Daily Archives: May 30, 2017

John Rudoff/Polaris/NewscomThe mayor of Portland, Oregon, has strong words for those who would sow fear in his city and attempt to shut down citizens' rights to free expression: "I surrender."

On Friday, two men were stabbed to death on a train in Portland while confronting and trying to calm down a man who was allegedly loudly harassing two young women with anti-Muslim comments.

Mayor Ted Wheeler's response to this brutal attack was to essentially tell the world that violence can successfully be used to convince the government to shut down civil liberties. In a rather self-absorbed speech Monday that treats this horrible but isolated event as though it were some sort of mass slaughter deserving of a permanent monument and some sort of "leadership" by politicians, Wheeler is demanding that the federal government cancel the permits for a couple of upcoming "alt-right" rallies in Terry Schrunk Plaza.

He flat out said in his comments that the city would refuse to grant rally permits to alt-right groups based on their views. However, the plaza right by Portland City Hall is actually federal property, and Wheeler is trying to get federal authorities to revoke the permits for the groups involved in a pair of June events.

And while there's some gesturing toward the idea that he wants the city to have time to grieve, he wouldn't be making such demands if the stabber had been yelling just incoherent nonsense and not an anti-Muslim rant. That's because Wheeler makes it very abundantly clear that he believes the people organizing these rallies are bigots and he doesn't want them around. He's using this violence as a way of curtailing the First Amendment right to both peacefully assemble and engage in free speech.

In response to those who point out that the alt=right has the same First Amendment protections as the rest of us, Wheeler actually says, "Hate speech is not protected by the First Amendment of the Constitution." (It's at about 6:54 in this clip of his comments.)

There is no "hate speech" exemption to the First Amendment, and it's bad enough when poorly educated college students believe that there is. We don't need politicians who run cities reinforcing the idea that such speech is not protected, because it feeds the idea that violent protests against certain speakers is therefore some form of heroic rebellion. He reinforces the mentality that threats, and even just fears, of violent responses are acceptable reasons to prohibit public protests.

This excuse is used by authoritarian regimes everywhere as a mechanism of suppressing speech. Once you send the message that violence will be used as a pretext to shut down the expression of certain opinions, violence is exactly what you'll get. Turkish authoritarian President Recep Erdogan claims that anybody speaking out against him is part of a violent plot to remove him in order to justify using government violence back against the critics.

At this point we should be less inclined to think that the "hate speech exemption" refrain reflects a person's ignorance of the First Amendment and more inclined to see it as a deliberate effort to will an idea into reality and to change everybody's perception of where speech's legal limits actually are.

Fortunately the American Civil Liberties Union's chapter in Oregon is tweeting back at the mayor, warning him that attempting to shut down rallies on the basis of disagreeing with the content is literally what the First Amendment is meant to prevent:

Protecting these rallies is one of the reasons taxpayers are asked to fund the police. Making sure violence cannot be used to suppress our rights to speak freely and to practice our various religions is one of the reasons we have a government police force. Maybe Wheeler should spend more time dealing with those responsibilities and less trying to take the lazy way out.

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After Violent Attack, Portland Mayor Calls for Abandoning First Amendment - Reason (blog)

USA Today Editorial Board 3:38 p.m. CT May 29, 2017

Protesters against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Washington on May 16, 2017.(Photo: Shawn Thew, epa)

The contrast between despotism and liberty was on stark display earlier this monthin the nation's capital, when bodyguards of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan set upon protesters exercising free-speech rights in front of the Turkish ambassador's residence.

Video captured images of the Turkish strongman emerging from a car to watch his beefy sentinels pummel and kick dissidents until the violence was quelled by baton-wielding D.C. police. Eleven people were injured, including a police officer.

The May 16 melee, largely overshadowed by last week's bombshell news involving President Trump and the Russians, was behavior that might have passed for state-sanctioned oppression in Ankara. But this took place along Washington's Embassy Row, and demonstrators acted with the First Amendment's blessing to peaceably assemble.

Imagine the outcry if Israeli protesters gathering outside the King David Hotel in Jerusalem during President Trump's visit this week had been suddenly attacked by members of the U.S. Secret Service. Nor was this the first time Erdogan's security team fought with demonstrators in downtown Washington. A clash broke out in front of the Brookings Institution last year.

Such brutality is sadly what Americans have come to expect from a leader who once held promise as a much needed reformer for a leading democracy in the Islamic world, only to turn increasing autocratic. Last year, Erdogan barely won a referendum, marred by allegations of fraud, that substantially increased the powers of his presidency. After a coup attempt in July, he launched a widespread purge, jailing thousands of opponents, journalists and educators.

When the United States and other Western nations called for restraint, Erdogan dismissed them. That's why it was so galling to see his imperiousness on display in the U.S. capital. One video of the event last week shows a henchman leaning inside Erdogan's car, as if seeking direction. The man then turns and signals another, who plunges into the demonstrators with his fists swinging. Some protesters also threw punches.

Two Erdogan guards were detained by police but later released; all have since left the country. An investigation continues, but diplomatic immunity would make it tough to bring Erdogan's guards to justice.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called the Turkish conduct "outrageous," and his department issued a condemnation, summoning Turkey's ambassador to the U.S., Serdar Kl, for a dressing down. Days later, the Turkish Foreign Ministry in Ankara playing tit for tat similarly called in the U.S. ambassador to complain of how police treated those guards.

But the White House has remained silent on the violence that occurred shortly after Trump heaped praised on Erdogan during a meeting between the pair. Increasingly and disturbingly, the president has been drawn to strongmen who trample on human rights, among them Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Philippine President Eduardo Duterte and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Doesn't Trump care about Erdogan's thugs beating up protesters just blocks from the White House? The president has, after all, sworn to protect and defend the Constitution and its First Amendment.

Instead, it's left to others like Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., to exorcise the bitter taste this episode has left. "That's not America," McCain said. No, it is not.

USA TODAY's editorial opinions are decided by its Editorial Board, separate from the news staff.

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Turkey henchmen kick First Amendment - Springfield News-Leader

Wheeler this morning announced that he has asked the federal government to revoke permits for a June 4 "free speech" rally in downtown Portland, saying the city was raw and angry in the wake of two slayings on a MAX train Friday.

Wheeler's announcement today drew immediate criticism from civil-liberties advocates. Shortly before 2 pm this afternoon, the ACLU of Oregon released its statement, in a series of tweets.

"The government cannot revoke or deny a permit based on the viewpoint of the demonstrators," The ACLU said. "Period.

"It may be tempting to shut down speech we disagree with," the statement continued, "but once we allow the government to decide what we can say, see, or hear, or who we can gather with, history shows us that the most marginalized will be disproportionately censored and punished for unpopular speech.

"We are all free to reject and protest ideas we don't agree with. That is a core, fundamental freedom of the United States. If we allow the government to shut down speech for some, we all will pay the price down the line."

The mayor's spokesman, Michael Cox, said Wheeler was not trying to muzzle far-right speechbut to break up a scheduled altercation between the "alt-right" and antifascist groups. Those groups had been regularly confronting each other, even before the Friday slaying of two men who confronted hate speech on a Portland MAX train.

"The mayor is not seeking to limit the content of speech," Cox said on Twitter. "He is seeking to prevent violence."

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ACLU of Oregon Says Mayor Ted Wheeler's Attempt to Quash Alt-Right Rallies Violates the First Amendment - Willamette Week

The First Amendment Foundation is weighing in on a wide-sweeping education bill, asking Gov. Rick Scott to veto the measure when it gets to his desk.

In a letter to Scott on Tuesday, Barbara Petersen, the president of the First Amendment Foundation, said the organizations concerns relate only to the lack of transparency in the process by which major policy decisions regarding Floridas education system were decided.

Lawmakers narrowly approved the bill (HB 7069) on the final day of the 2017 Legislative Session. The proposal, which is tied to the state budget, was a top priority for House Speaker Richard Corcoran, and, among other things, steers more money to privately run charter schools, requires recess in elementary schools and tinkers with the states standardized testing system.

While the measure includes several education changes legislators had been considering, the final bill was negotiated largely in private and wasnt seen by the public until the final days of the session.

The secretive process precluded any opportunity for public oversight or input on major changes to Floridas education policy, said Petersen in her letter to Scott. Alarmingly, local school officials were also shut out of the process, as were many legislators who were ultimately asked to approve this voluminous and complicated legislation decided in a manner closed even to them.

Petersen said Floridians deserve the respect and the commitment of our elected leaders to uphold our Florida Sunshine laws, a 33 years old tradition and benchmark of good government.

One of the major provisions of the bill creates the Schools of Hope program, which would offer financial incentive to charter school operators who would agree to take students attending chronically failing schools, many in poor areas and urban neighborhoods.

The bill has been criticized by states teacher unions, parent groups, and superintendents of some of the states largest school districts.

The First Amendment Foundation has also called on Scott to veto the entire fiscal 2017-18 budget once it reaches his desk. Much like the organizations request to veto the education bill, the group said its concerns relate only to the lack of transparency in the process and it wasnt objecting to any of the substantive programs and issues.

Neither the budget nor the education bill have been sent to Scott.

The Associated Press contributed to this report, reprinted with permission.

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First Amendment Foundation calls on Rick Scott to veto education bill - Florida Politics (blog)

During a heated exchange on Thursday, Fox News Tucker Carlson of Tucker Carlson Tonight calledco-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) Dan Barkera bully who runs a highly aggressive interest group, after Barkers group shut down a before-school Bible study group for first- and second-graders.

The Altruria Bible Club met at Altruria Elementary School in Bartlett, Tennessee, before classes in the morning, with dozens of students attending the meetings, according to WMC-TV. The groupsent a letter tothe schooland told them to investigate the club to see to it that teachers or staff were not taking part in it, citing the Establishment Clause in the First Amendment.

The school shut down the club, causing outrage among parents. The FFRF said ina statement to WATN-TV in Memphis that this development is a victory not only for reason and the law but for the inviolable right of a captive audience of first- and second-grade students to be free from indoctrination in a public school setting.

Carlson and Barker exchanged opinions over the matter of the club being shut down. Carlson asked Barker if he felt good about shutting down a Bible study for children.Barker told Carlson that his group did feel good about it, and that the school did the right thing by shutting down the illegal Bible club.

Well, you bullied them into it, Carlson said. Bullied them into canceling a club for first graders.

Carlson then asked Barker what the Constitutional problem was with what the club was doing, stating that school district employeeshave their right to free speech. Barker disagreed, saying that the teachers are the government.

Theres a difference between free speech and governmentspeech, he said. When those teachers are at the school, they are the government.

There are families who wish to protect their children from the depravity and the violence thats in the Bible, Barker said.

Carlson and Barker arguedover First Amendment rights. Barker refuted Carlsons statement that teachers do not give up their First Amendment rights just because they are teachers.

You dont forfeit your First Amendment rights, or any of your Constitutional rights, just because you work for the government. You know that, Carlson said.

Yes, you do, Barker replied.

Carlson finished the segment by calling Barker a zealot who flexes his muscles because children reading the Bible bugs him, and said Barkers pride in shutting down the Bible study group weird.

The Supreme Court ruled that schools are required to allow religious groups to meet after hours on campus, if they allow similarly situated non-religious groups to do soin a 6-3 decision in the The Good News Club v. Milford Central Schools case in 2001. The Milford School in upstate New York claimed that allowing the private Christian group for children, The Good News Club, to hold meetings on school grounds after school was the equivalent of religious worship.

The Good News club claimed that the school was discriminating against the club due to their religious beliefs, while allowing other groups to teach their definition of morality, such as the Boy Scouts of America, and the 4-H club. The Supreme Court found that the school allowing other groups to meet on school grounds, but not the Good News Club, was indeed discrimination on the basis of religion, and made their ruling allowing religious groups tomeet on school grounds after hours.

When Milford denied the Good News Club access to the schools limited public forum on the ground that the club was religious in nature, it discriminated against the club because of its religious viewpoint in violation of the free-speech clause of the First Amendment, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote for the majority.

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Watch: Tucker Carlson verbally pummels atheist activist with the ... - TheBlaze.com