Sunday, March 18, 2012

Government agents can now Tell You To Shut Up

We read:
"Last week, President Obama signed into law the Federal Restricted Buildings and Grounds Improvement Act of 2011. This law permits Secret Service agents to designate any place they wish as a place where free speech, association and petition of the government are prohibited. And it permits the Secret Service to make these determinations based on the content of speech.

Thus, federal agents whose work is to protect public officials and their friends may prohibit the speech and the gatherings of folks who disagree with those officials or permit the speech and the gatherings of those who would praise them, even though the First Amendment condemns content-based speech discrimination by the government. The new law also provides that anyone who gathers in a "restricted" area may be prosecuted. And because the statute does not require the government to prove intent, a person accidentally in a restricted area can be charged and prosecuted, as well.

Permitting people to express publicly their opinions to the president only at a time and in a place and manner such that he cannot hear them violates the First Amendment because it guarantees the right to useful speech; and unheard political speech is politically useless. The same may be said of the rights to associate and to petition. If peaceful public assembly and public expression of political demands on the government can be restricted to places where government officials cannot be confronted, then those rights, too, have been neutered.

Political speech is in the highest category of protected speech. This is not about drowning out the president in the Oval Office. This is about letting him know what we think of his work when he leaves the White House. This is speech intended to influence the political process.

This abominable legislation enjoyed overwhelming support from both political parties in Congress because the establishment loves power, fears dissent and hates inconvenience, and it doesn't give a damn about the Constitution. It passed the Senate by unanimous consent, and only three members of the House voted against it. And the president signed it in secret. It is more typical of contemporary China than America. It is more George III than George Washington.

Source

I think I have posted on this before but I also think it needs as much publicity as possible. The above is an excerpt from an article by Judge Andrew Napolitano, who is a pretty smart cookie in legal matters -- so what we read above should be pretty reliable.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sort of brings back warm and fuzzy memories of the Gestapo, doesn't it. And, as was the case in the Germany of the 1930's, things like this can only happen when a formally-free people allow themselves to become weak, gullible, and mindless sheep.

What the American people are to dumb to understand is, Fascist dictators don't always need to wear arm bands and uniforms. All they need are weak people.

Anonymous said...

The reich increases its power everyday. Pretty soon we will have a crystal nacht.We will need a project walkure here.

Come Here Bird said...

HITLER WAS A CHRISTIAN

Anonymous said...

come here bird, Hitler CLAIMED to be a christian, but his actions proved otherwise.

Anonymous said...

Yep here we go again with the "No True Scotsman" syndrome/fallacy.

Anonymous said...

Any Mason, a true Mason, knows and understands that stable and decent societies cannot possibly stand on a foundation of lies.

Use the Name, Luke said...

here we go again with the "No True Scotsman" syndrome/fallacy.

So, when are you going to condemn MADD, SADD, and all the other xADD organizations for encouraging drunk driving?

Kee Bird said...

Hitler was a VEGAN and a DRUG ADDICT AS WELL AS A ENVIROMENTALISTS AS WELL

Anonymous said...

Hitler used to mow my lawn years ago. He was a nice boy.

Leggs Sparrow said...

The he got older and meaner