Flag burning vote TOMORROW and government-imposed ratings
---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Wed, 11 Jun 1997 13:32:35 -0700 (PDT) From: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com> To: fight-censorship-announce@vorlon.mit.edu Subject: Flag burning vote TOMORROW and government-imposed ratings I don't often forward along non-Net issues, but these are too important to ignore. First, from my colleagues at AllPolitics: http://www.allpolitics.com/1997/gen/analysis/counterpoint/ Counterpoint: Ban Flag Burning? It's baaaack.....! The House is set to vote June 12 on a proposed amendment to the Constitution that would ban flag desecration. Democratic Rep. William Lipinksi, a lead sponsor, says the flag is too important a symbol not to be protected, while ACLU executive director Ira Glasser warns against weakening the First Amendment. Read on for a note from Chris Finan. Also check out Cato's web site for a related paper on mandatory "voluntary" ratings by f-c subscriber Bob Corn-Revere: http://www.cato.org/pubs/briefs/v_chipes.html -Declan ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Tue, 10 Jun 1997 12:43:54 -0400 From: Chris Finan <mediacoalition@sprintmail.com> To: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com> Subject: Government ratings of TV Declan, The opponents of government-mandated TV ratings need help. The FCC is under heavy pressure to appoint a panel to devise a system of ratings to replace the ratings that the networks have voluntarily adopted. More than 300 of the 355 e-mail comments received by the FCC have been from individuals and groups urging greater censorship of TV. Would you post this message on the Fight Censorship list to let people know that they can e-mail their views to the FCC? Their messages, which needn't be long or formal, should be sent to vchip@fcc.gov as soon as possible. The Free Expression Network has jumped in with both feet to the fight against a government-mandated TV rating system. Its website, the Free Expression Clearing House, www.freeexpression.org, has a lot of current information on the TV ratings fight. Thanks.
| http://www.allpolitics.com/1997/gen/analysis/counterpoint/ | | Counterpoint: Ban Flag Burning? | | It's baaaack.....! The House is set to vote June 12 on | a proposed amendment to the Constitution that would | ban flag desecration. Democratic Rep. William | Lipinksi, a lead sponsor, says the flag is too | important a symbol not to be protected, while ACLU | executive director Ira Glasser warns against | weakening the First Amendment. Would a Flag Burning Ammendment give the court clear guidance that other offensive speech, not ammended against, is now more ok? Adam -- "It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once." -Hume
Jut woke up, but I would argue "no." This would be the first constitutional weakening of the First Amendment ever. Hardly a move that strengthens free speech protections. -Declan On Thu, 12 Jun 1997, Adam Shostack wrote:
| http://www.allpolitics.com/1997/gen/analysis/counterpoint/ | | Counterpoint: Ban Flag Burning? | | It's baaaack.....! The House is set to vote June 12 on | a proposed amendment to the Constitution that would | ban flag desecration. Democratic Rep. William | Lipinksi, a lead sponsor, says the flag is too | important a symbol not to be protected, while ACLU | executive director Ira Glasser warns against | weakening the First Amendment.
Would a Flag Burning Ammendment give the court clear guidance that other offensive speech, not ammended against, is now more ok?
Adam
-- "It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once." -Hume
Would a Flag Burning Amendment give the court clear guidance that other offensive speech, not amended against, is now more ok?
At 06:23 AM 6/12/97 -0700, Declan wrote:
Just woke up, but I would argue "no." This would be the first constitutional weakening of the First Amendment ever. Hardly a move that strengthens free speech protections.
Normally when the government wants to weaken the First Amendment, it does it through the courts, or makes laws nationalizing the spectrum :-) This isn't the first time CONgress has tried a flag-burning amendment; they tried it under George Bush* as well, and failed to get it through. Does this look any different, under a Republican Congress? [As somebody said, if you wrapped yourself in the flag as much as Bush did, you'd worry about flag-burning too.... Clinton doesn't do it as much, but he's no more a friend of civil liberties, and if the polls said 51% of the voters want him to sign it, he probably would.] # Thanks; Bill # Bill Stewart, +1-415-442-2215 stewarts@ix.netcom.com # You can get PGP outside the US at ftp.ox.ac.uk/pub/crypto/pgp # (If this is a mailing list or news, please Cc: me on replies. Thanks.)
participants (3)
-
Adam Shostack -
Bill Stewart -
Declan McCullagh