Saturday, July 23, 2011

Missouri Supreme Court: Government May Criminalize Truthful, Harmless Information

A court in the pocket of realtors?
"On July 19 the Missouri Supreme Court issued its opinion in Kansas City Premier Apartments v. Missouri Real Estate Commission, in which it upheld a state law that criminalizes the communication of truthful, harmless information. Although at trial the government’s own expert witness had testified that KCPA’s speech was both truthful and unlikely to cause any harm to the public, five of the high court’s seven judges ruled that Missouri citizens may not tell others about real estate unless the government has given them special permission to do so.

“The U.S. Supreme Court has held that the First Amendment protects nude dancing, burning the American flag, and images of animals being crushed to death,” said Dave Roland, director of litigation for the Freedom Center of Missouri, the public interest law firm challenging the speech restrictions. “But today the Missouri Supreme Court has ruled that you can be thrown in jail for helping a friend find an apartment.”

The court’s ruling runs contrary to the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent emphasis on protecting free expression. As Judge Michael A. Wolff pointed out in his dissenting opinion, less than one month ago the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Vermont law that prohibited the sale of certain commercial information, powerfully reaffirming the constitutional principles that should have applied to the speech restrictions at issue in this case.

The Freedom Center of Missouri plans to appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Source

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Outside of each court house, in plain view, the people should erect a gallows with several ropes and a sign prominently displayed saying,

"RESERVED FOR JUDGES ONLY"

stinky said...

Next up: "licensed" journalism.

Anonymous said...

We've already got that, with Obama trying to throw Fox out of the press conferences

Anonymous said...

"Obama trying to throw Fox out of the press conferences"

Comedy/Variety channels like Fox do not belong in White House Press conferences.

President Not Sure said...

Anon 6:11am: No matter how loud you yell it, the only difference between Foxnews and any other news outlet is the direction they lean.. If what you say would apply to Foxnews, then every other news outlet like CNN and MSNBC must also be thrown out for being "Comedy/Variety" channels as well.. Or is it only stations that lean right that you would illegally censor?

Anonymous said...

"Or is it only stations that lean right that you would illegally censor?"

Only the right leaning ones, of course, you silly boy.

Spurwing Plover said...

Time for the residents of the SHOW-ME state to do what they did in IOWA and vote those judicial bums all out

FuzzyRider said...

The leftist/fascists don't even PRETEND to be democratic any more. I am (almost) glad we elected Chairman Obama- for all the damage he has done, his victory emboldened the leftists prematurely; he caused the 'infection' of leftism to come to the front for all to see before the body politic was truly too weak to resist it. Would these judges really make such a transparently unconstitutional ruling if they did not believe that in the current political climate they were likely to get away with it?