Sunday, April 19, 2015



How generous!

Outside the Sugarlands Visitor Center, Gatlinburg, TN. Yay! We get a whole AREA for freespeech!



What's with the quotation marks?

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

The government has no right to set a Free Speech area.

Anonymous said...

And a permit may be required!?

Anonymous said...

Every public space is a free speech area. If not, why not?

Anonymous said...

The right of free speech, like all rights, is not an absolute right.

The government has the right (and some would say the duty) to place time, place and manner restrictions on speech.

For example, protestors cannot block a freeway. (They may try, but it is against the law.) No one has the right to set up a band in a public cul de sac and start blasting music at 3:30 AM. People can be removed for disrupting a government meeting even though they are speaking about political issues.

In a park such as the one in the picture, does a speaker have the right to come and stand on your picnic table and start blasting out messages with a megaphone?

The issue is always going to be that there are times when "rights" clash. Time, place and manner restrictions are often overly broad and overly used, but there is a balance that must be sought when the rights of one person clash with the rights of another.

Anonymous said...

@ 5:27

It always seems to me that the those that choose to create havoc on legitimate protests (i.e. the socialist left) are given a free pass whereas those on the right who choose protest are held to different standard. The left are more likely to stage protests of the type you object to, as would I, but the right are more likely to fall foul of the law. Go figure.

Use the Name, Luke said...

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
— First Amendment

The entire United States is a free speech zone. But note the word I've highlighted. The First Amendment does not protect violent or abusive "speech".

Use the Name, Luke said...

So you think repeated death threats over a disagreement is protected by the First Amendment? You think rioting, looting, and arson are protected by the First Amendment? You think publicly lying about someone to destroy their life is protected by the First Amendment? You think shouting "fire" in a crowded theater when there is none (causing people to die) is protected by the First Amendment?

Bird of Paradise said...

Abolish the National Park Service they have no right to set aside areas when we can express out 1st Amendment rights

Anonymous said...

Dear Luke,

Thank you for creating all those arguments which I did not advance. It must be wonderful to sit there and type angrily in agreement with yourself.

Adults admit when they make mistakes Luke. There is no shame in it.

You blew your initial point and are now trying to walk it back.

Anonymous said...

Luke never accepts he's wrong, whether over religion or other opinions.

Use the Name, Luke said...

"Thank you for creating all those arguments which I did not advance."

Those were precisely the kinds of things I had in mind when I made my post. Therefore, YOUR initial response was "creating arguments which I did not advance.

Your first example is no more enforceable than thefts of pocket change. Your second is debate over the propriety of war, which is unavoidable and necessary within nations.

Anonymous said...

Luke,

Those were precisely the kinds of things I had in mind when I made my post.

Too bad you didn't say those things and instead put out other thoughts that were incorrect. I addressed the things that you wrote, not the things that were floating around in your head that are unknown to the rest of the world.

Your first example is no more enforceable than thefts of pocket change.

Yet that is the very type of speech that you said was not covered by the First Amendment.

To further compound your poor attempt at a justification, are you really saying that "theft of pocket change" is not theft and therefore not a crime?

Your second is debate over the propriety of war, which is unavoidable and necessary within nations.

You may take to be that but it is also "violent speech" which you said was not covered under the First Amendment. Now you seem be saying that such a statement is acceptable.

Flip flop much?

Finally, I notice that you haven't admitted that you were wrong on your statement that "the entire United States is a free speech zone."

Still not mature enough to say when you are wrong or what you wrote was incorrect?

Use the Name, Luke said...

And this boys and girls, is why I have zero respect for the left. Word twisting, tortured "interpretations", and straw man arguments are flatly dishonest. I'm done wasting my precious time on a troll only interested in distorting words to engage in hateful attacks.

The First Amendment, by including the word "peaceable", does not protect "free speech" like the events in Baltimore over the past several days. It really is that simple.

If you're having trouble understanding the word "peaceable", try learning what a dictionary is and how to use one.