Don't make a silent, one second Nazi salute to the chair of a public meeting in California, Nevada, Oregon, Idaho, Washington, Arizona, Montana, Alaska, Hawaii, Guam or the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands because, if you do, public officials who don't like you or your message may eject you from the meeting, put you in handcuffs and haul you off to jail, says a panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals today in a case I have been litigating for the past seven years.
It doesn't matter that almost nobody saw the salute and the meeting droned on without a pause before an offended city council member (and then I and co-counsel, Kate Wells) made a federal case out of it. We thought we were on solid ground since our client, Robert Norse, didn't disrupt the Santa Cruz City Council meeting he was removed from and we had video to prove it.
We also thought the law was on our side. First Amendment law can be murky at times but until now nothing has been clearer than the principle that government cannot suppress an idea because it doesn't like the speaker or the message. And previous Ninth Circuit decisions did not allow expulsions from public meetings without a disruption.
After reading the contorted reasoning of the majority, take a look at the sensible dissent. See Norse v. City of Santa Cruz, filed November 3, 2009 here: http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/opinions/
[update] On March 12, 2010, the Ninth Circuit ordered review of this case by an en banc panel. On December 15, 2010, the en banc panel voted 11-0 to reverse the decision of the district court and remand the case for trial. For a link to the court's decision, go here: http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/news.aspx?id=23703
Here's the video of the incident submitted into evidence.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
In a number of other occaions that I've been involved with, the idea that civility may substituted for good deeds seems to have infected our society with a vengeance. I find that people apparently think that if you're polite enough about it, you can get away with anything. In fact, I had occasion to experience this yesterday.
ReplyDeleteNevermind the old maxim that actions speak louder than words. Good deeds are far more important than good words. Words can lie. We need more insolent conduct and more good deeds. The tactic of passive agressive conduct has beome the norm of society today. As long as you aren't rude, you can screw anyone you want. If you are rude, that's all that counts.
Excuse me kind sir, while I hit you on the head with this 10 lb. hammer. You will feel a slight twinge. Ready? Oh, I'm shocked, you yelled at me when I hit you! You used foul language! How rude? How discourteous! I was being courteous to you! And you insulted me! This is against our policy here. I'm reporting this to the authorities! Call Security! Arrest this man, he used foul langage at me!
It's insane.
In the seminal case on First Amendment rights to free speech, West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624, 63 S.Ct. 1178, U.S. 1943 (regarding students that refused to salute the flag in class), Justice Jackson writing for a majority at the height of World War II said:
ReplyDelete"We can have intellectual individualism and the rich cultural diversities that we owe to exceptional minds only at the price of occasional eccentricity and abnormal attitudes. ... [F]reedom to differ is not limited to things that do not matter much. That would be a mere shadow of freedom. The test of its substance is the right to differ as to things that touch the heart of the existing order.