Clipmarks | First amendment Clips

Acclaimed Journalist Amy Goodman Arrested

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 05:47:45 GMT

clipped by: dmtherob
clipper's remarks: This is a clear violation of the first amendment. Amy and her crew had clearly visible Press badges and the camera's were in plain view. Amy and her crew were filming and reporting on the protester's at the RNC.

Clip Source: seattlepi.nwsource.com

Government crackdowns on journalists threaten democracy

AMY GOODMAN
SYNDICATED COLUMNIST

Nicole was videotaping. Her tape of her own violent arrest is chilling. Police in riot gear charged her, yelling, "Get down on your face." You hear her voice, clearly and repeatedly announcing "Press! Press! Where are we supposed to go?" She was trapped between parked cars. The camera drops to the pavement amid Nicole's screams of pain. Her face was smashed into the pavement, and she was bleeding from the nose, with the heavy officer with a boot or knee on her back. Another officer was pulling on her leg. Sharif was thrown up against the wall and kicked in the chest, and he was bleeding from his arm.

Tags: amy goodman, riot, riots, police, arrest

Bush Pushes for More Police Power

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 03:25:27 GMT

clipped by: katsteevns
clipper's remarks: (cont.)Four Democratic senators - with the lamentable absence of their leader, Harry Reid - also have reminded the attorney general of his oath to protect the Constitution. Russ Feingold, Richard Durbin, Edward Kennedy and Sheldon Whitehouse warn not only Mukasey but also the rest of us that the new rules "might permit an innocent American to be subjected to such intrusive surveillance based in part on race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, or on protected First Amendment activities."

As Lara Jakes Jordan of The Associated Press (Aug. 18) pointed out: "The new policy, law enforcement officials said, would let agents open preliminary terrorism investigations after mining public records and intelligence (including tips from informants) to build a profile of traits that, taken together, were deemed suspicious." There would be no evidence of criminal activity.

Clip Source: www.commondreams.org

Published on Wednesday, September 3, 2008 by The Canton Repository (Ohio)

Bush Pushes for More Police Power

by Nat Hentoff

In his last months, President Bush is working to ensure that his successor will have the greatly expanded power of the executive branch - unprecedented in American history - that Bush instituted after 9/11. His chief enabler in this ever-increasing surveillance of American citizens is Attorney General Michael Mukasey.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy and ranking minority member Arlen Specter are aware of Mukasey's plan for new FBI guidelines that could begin national security and criminal investigations of racial and ethnic groups without any evidence of wrongdoing. They have asked Mukasey to delay implementation until Congress can review the changes. Mukasey agreed but wants the expanded surveillance to begin Oct. 1.

"Ceremonial deism," U.S. civil religion, and the law

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 16:33:45 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: A Pew Forum backgrounder on the status of (supposedly) religiously-neutral invocations of a deity by government agents.

Clip Source: pewforum.org

On Ceremonial Occasions, May the Government Invoke a Deity?

Through these and many similar practices, the government invokes the concept of a deity. Opponents of these religious invocations say such proclamations promote religion and thus violate the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause, which prohibits all laws “respecting an establishment of religion.” Defenders of governmental religious invocations, by contrast, claim that such expressions do not explicitly promote religion; rather, defenders say, religious proclamations merely acknowledge the historical and cultural connections between the United States and belief in God.

In an influential 1962 lecture, Dean Eugene Rostow of Yale Law School argued that the government’s “conventional and uncontroversial” expressions of faith, which he called acts of “ceremonial deism,” do not violate the Establishment Clause.

A Supreme Court justice first used the phrase “ceremonial deism” in an opinion in Lynch v. Donnelly (1984)

Tags: religion, pluralism, america, church_and_state, civil_religion, god, politics, law

Gov. Palin on Family Planning: The Eagle Forum questionnaire

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 11:40:51 GMT

clipped by: zizzy
clipper's remarks:

3. Will you support funding for abstinence-until-marriage education instead of for explicit sex-education programs, school-based clinics, and the distribution of contraceptives in schools?
Sarah Palin: Yes, the explicit sex-ed programs will not find my support.

8. Do you support parental choice in the spending of state educational dollars?
Sarah Palin: Within Alaska law, I support parents deciding what is the best education venue for their child.

12. In relationship to families, what are your top three priorities if elected governor?
Sarah Palin: 1) Creating an atmosphere where parents feel welcome to choose the venues of education for their children; 2) Preserving the definition of “marriage” as defined in our constitution, and 3) Cracking down on the things that harm family life: gangs, drug use, and infringement of our liberties including attacks on our 2nd Amendment rights.

Clip Source: blog.newsweek.com

Perhaps the most detailed account of her views came in her responses to a questionnaire put out by the Alaskan arm of the conservative pro-family group The Eagle Forum. We've pulled the questions most relevant to family planning,

1. Complete the sentence by checking the applicable phrases (you can check more than one).
Abortion should be:

Banned throughout entire pregnancy.
Legal to save the life of the mother.
Legal in case of rape and incest.
Legal if the baby is handicapped.
Legal if the baby has a genetic defect.
Legal in the first trimester.
Legal in the second trimester.
Legal in the third trimester.
Other:__________________

Sarah Palin: I am pro-life. With the exception of a doctor’s determination that the mother’s life would end if the pregnancy continued. I believe that no matter what mistakes we make as a society, we cannot condone ending an innocent’s life.

First Amendment

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 19:25:16 GMT

clipped by: dakotayii
clipper's remarks: Best quote on first amendment.

Clip Source: scienceblogs.com

I've always had problems with "demonstrators" claiming first amendment rights to disrupt the speech of other people attempting to exercise their first amendment rights. Both sides have a right to speak their piece but neither side has a right to disrupt the other

Tags: quote

Govt. Agencies Muzzle Free-Speech At Law-Enforcement Conference

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 03:07:26 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: This is just wrong. Our liberties are being shred by the officials who supposedly represent us.

Clip Source: www.leap.cc

Retired police detective, Howard Wooldridge, representing Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) was ousted from the National Asian Peace Officers Association (NAPOA) Conference in Crystal City because he was representing a view contrary U.S. government policy.

LEAP is a 10,000-member organization of police, judges, prosecutors, DEA & FBI agents, and others who know ending drug prohibition will reduce death, disease, crime, and addiction, while saving billions of our tax dollars each year.

On Tuesday (8.26.2008) acting under pressure from unnamed federal officials, Reagan Fong, President of the NAPOA, insisted on the immediate removal of LEAP from the conference vendor roster. It appears that some of the event’s other exhibitors took exception to the LEAP message and put pressure on the event organizer to expel LEAP from the event. While the incident was civil

it represents a serious violation of Constitutional rights as cited within the First Amendment.

Victory by Intimidation

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 02:51:12 GMT

clipped by: mklosinski
clipper's remarks: Where does Barack Hussen Obama stand on the issue of the First Amendment? I think we know where his supporters stand.

Clip Source: www.cnsnews.com

(CNSNews.com) - Supporters of Barack Obama made thousands of calls and sent thousands of e-mails Wednesday in an organized campaign to intimidate a Chicago radio station – WGN-AM – into canceling the appearance of a conservative writer on one of its long-time popular talk shows.

The e-mails, which were prompted by an action alert called “The Obama Action Wave,” which The Chicago Tribune attributed to the Obama campaign, were all “very negative,” Christenson told CNSNews.com

“I got the feeling they were trying to intimidate us,” Christenson said. “I definitely think that directing the phone calls and the e-mails of supporters was definitely an attempt, not to shut us down, but to intimidate us.”

He agreed that Obama supporters were out to intimidate the station Wednesday night.

Tags: obama, first amendment

Palin

Sat, 30 Aug 2008 03:21:10 GMT

clipped by: badbadkitty13
clipper's remarks: She opposes same-sex marriage,[20] but complied with an Alaskan state Supreme Court order and signed an implementation of same-sex benefits into law, stating that legal options to avoid doing so had run out.[49][50] She supported a non-binding referendum for a constitutional amendment to deny benefits to homosexual couples.[51] Alaska was one of the first U.S. states to pass a constitutional ban on gay marriage, in 1998, along with Hawaii.[52] Palin has stated that she supported the 1998 constitutional amendment.[20]

Clip Source: en.wikipedia.org

Palin has strongly promoted oil resource development in Alaska, including opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling.

After she was announced as McCain's presumptive running mate, she stated that she does not believe that climate change is man-made.

In May 2008, Palin objected to the decision of Dirk Kempthorne, the Republican United States Secretary of the Interior, to list polar bears as an endangered species. She threatened a lawsuit to stop the listing amid fears that it would hurt oil and gas development in the bears' habitat off Alaska's northern and northwestern coasts. She also called unreliable the climate-change models cited by Kempthorne and environmentalists that predict melting of Arctic ice. She said the move to list the bears was premature and was not the appropriate management tool for their welfare at the time.^[43]

Obama Resorts to Tyrant Tactics to Suppress Revealing Ad

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 03:34:08 GMT

clipped by: Smoke TNT
clipper's remarks: "Ironically, if the media is able to install Obama in the White House, the free speech it relies on will be among the first things to be Changed, as his ham-fisted attempts to bully media outlets make obvious."

Clip Source: moonbattery.com

[Video]

From AP:

Obama not only aired a response ad to the spot linking him to William Ayers, but he sought to block stations [from airing] the commercial by warning station managers and asking the Justice Department to intervene. The campaign also planned to compel advertisers to pressure stations that continue to air the anti-Obama commercial.

Unable to dispute the accuracy of the ad, Obamatrons have been reduced to whining that Obama was only a little kid when his unrepentant mentor Ayers committed his vilest crimes against the America he so hates.

The American Issues Project, which created the ad, responds to the banana republic attempts to suppress it (PDF):

Surely we have not come to a point where the government and its agencies are used to protect presidential candidates from citizens' speech, essentially destroying the very purpose, meaning and historical essence of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Tags: obama, terrorists, totalitarianism, media, free speech

Obama to DOJ: Block Terrorist Ad

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 09:48:47 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: One large group of network affiliates, the Sinclair Broadcast Group — which aired an documentary attacking John Kerry in 2004 — has been running the ads, Obama aides said. The campaign has launched a special effort to pressure Sinclair.

Obama has launched a response ad, which addresses McCain directly, and will air in Ohio, Tracey said.

"With all our problems, why is John McCain talking about the '60s, trying to link Barack Obama to radical Bill Ayers?" says Obama’s ad.

The Obama campaign plans to punish the stations that air the ad financially, an Obama aide said, organizing his supporters to target the stations that air it and their advertisers.

McCain’s camp, meanwhile, appears to welcome the controversy.

“The fact that [Obama] is launching his own convention by defending his long association with a man who says he didn't bomb enough U.S. targets tells us more about Barack Obama than any of tonight's speeches will,” said McCain spokesman Brian Rogers.

Clip Source: www.politico.com

Sen. Barack Obama has launched an all-out effort to block a Republican billionaire’s efforts to tie him to domestic and foreign terrorists in a wave of negative television ads.

Obama’s campaign has written the Department of Justice demanding a criminal investigation of the “American Issues Project,” the vehicle through which Dallas investor Harold Simmons is financing the advertisements. The Obama campaign — and tens of thousands of supporters — also is pressuring television networks and affiliates to reject the ads. The effort has met with some success: CNN and Fox News are not airing the attacks.

“This is a sad ploy to circumvent the First Amendment by a campaign who has no arguments with the merits of our ad. It’s the classic maneuver: If you can’t win on the merits, file a lawsuit,” said a spokesman for the American Issues Project

Obama’s campaign has written a pair of letters to station managers carrying the ads.

Tags: ayers tv ads, american issues project, obama campaign, demand doj conduct criminal investigation

Sexual orientation laws trump religious freedom, California Supreme Court says

Sun, 24 Aug 2008 21:23:48 GMT

clipped by: Efrain Alvarado

Clip Source: www.catholicnewsagency.com

Sacramento, Aug 23, 2008 / 08:47 pm (CNA).- The California Supreme Court’s unanimous Monday decision against two doctors who declined to artificially inseminate a lesbian could have significant implications for religious freedom in the United States. Critics have attacked the decision, which said religious freedom and free speech guarantees do not exempt the doctors from complying with anti-discrimination laws protecting sexual orientation.

Speaking for the California Supreme Court, Justice Joyce Kennard decided the case in Monday’s decision, writing:

“Do the rights of religious freedom and free speech, as guaranteed in both the federal and the California Constitutions, exempt a medical clinic’s physicians from complying with the California Unruh Civil Rights Act’s prohibition against discrimination based on a person’s sexual orientation? Our answer is no.”

Taking away the First Amendment rights of healthcare professionals puts at risk the rights of every working American.

Tags: freedom, free speech, religion, discrimination

Fundy Group drops illgotten grant money from the state.

Sun, 24 Aug 2008 10:05:59 GMT

clipped by: Karzdan
clipper's remarks: Amazing, these guys should of never of been in the running for such a grant. They clearly are a 'our religion or else' kind of group. To have the government give them even 1 cent is, with little doubt, unconstitutional.

Clip Source: www.au.org

Fundamentalist Group Drops Public Funding Windfall After Americans United Protest

A fundamentalist Christian group that claims to help young people overcome drug and alcohol addiction through Bible study and prayer has given up a federal grant after Americans United for Separation of Church and State protested the funding.

Attorneys with Americans United wrote a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in June, noting that a $50,000 grant to Teen Challenge of Kentucky raised serious constitutional issues. The money was allocated through the Compassion Capital Fund, a special program created as part of President George W. Bush’s “faith-based” initiative.

Teen Challenge, Americans United pointed out, requires participants to take part in prayer, worship, Bible study and other religious activities. Program participants must sign a “Civil Rights Waiver” in which each surrenders the right to “exercis[e] the religion of my choice.”

Tags: religion, au, separation of church and state, faith-based, first amendment

Rights Group Suing AT&T for Spying Will Sue Government Too

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 22:54:47 GMT

clipped by: Kelika
clipper's remarks: "Cohn admits the government has many sovereign immunity defenses that can protect it from lawsuits, but says they aren't insurmountable and that the program clearly violates the Fourth Amendment.

As for the unexpectedly long-lived suit against AT&T, the government and the EFF are discussing when and how the government will attempt to have the case dismissed using the amnesty provision. The EFF wants to challenge the legality of the amnesty before it is actually applied, while the government prefers to have the case dismissed first -- then have the EFF fight the dismissal.

Lawyers for both sides will meet with the judge in the case in early September, setting a likely date for the next court appearance in December."

Clip Source: blog.wired.com

A civil liberties group suing AT&T for helping the government warrantlessly spy on Americans isn't abandoning its lawsuit after Congress voted to give retroactive immunity to the nation's telcoms.

The full extent of the government's warrantless spying has yet to be revealed, but it is reported to involve massive data-mining of Americans' phone records, and broad wiretapping of communicationst that enter or leave the U.S. border .

After the portion that targeted Americans' international communications was submitted to the nation's acquiesent secret spying court for blanket approval in January 2007, the program was quickly found to be illegal.

That prompted the Bush Administration to scare Congress into giving it wide, but temporary powers to turn American internet and phone companies into de facto extensions of the nation's spooks.

Though the EFF didn't want to sue the government originally, the amnesty issue forced their hand, according to Cohn.

Tags: at&t, government, spying

'Justice' Dept. Wants to Erase 4th Amendment, FBI to Have Gestapo Power

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 21:31:07 GMT

clipped by: blueridge
clipper's remarks: Attorney General Mukasey (neocon) wants to give broad powers to the FBI as if the 4th amendment is nothing at all instead of supreme law.

The Justice Department said Wednesday that in light of requests from members of Congress for more information, Mr. Mukasey would agree not to sign the new guidelines before a Sept. 17 Congressional hearing.

Can you believe this absolute corruption and blatant attempt to usurp power for federal policing? There will actually be a hearing in America's Congress to determine whether the 4th amendment will still stand--which forbids searches without probable cause! This right after the annual Sept. 11th propaganda campaign to justify ANY NEW POWERS the government wants, the Constitution notwithstanding.

Mukasey has no Constitutional authority to sign or authorize this (the Constitution is above Mukasey, as well as Bush and Congress), but he wants to, after a good propaganda campaign to justify it as "necessary".

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

New Guidelines Would Give F.B.I. Broader Powers

WASHINGTON — A Justice Department plan would loosen restrictions on the Federal Bureau of Investigation to allow agents to open a national security or criminal investigation against someone without any clear basis for suspicion, Democratic lawmakers briefed on the details said Wednesday.

The senators said the new guidelines would allow the F.B.I. to open an investigation of an American, conduct surveillance, pry into private records and take other investigative steps “without any basis for suspicion.” The plan “might permit an innocent American to be subjected to such intrusive surveillance based in part on race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, or on protected First Amendment activities,” the letter said.

As the end of the Bush administration nears, the White House has been seeking to formalize in law and regulation some of the aggressive counterterrorism steps it has already taken in practice since the Sept. 11 attacks.

Tags: mukasey, fbi, 4th amendment, constitution, surveillance, warrantless searches

ACLU trying to control public prayer

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 18:23:38 GMT

clipped by: Eaglewings
clipper's remarks: I thought the ACLU sought to protect people from the overreaching government and discrimination against religion, race, or creed. I guess I was mistaken.

The mission statement of the ACLU states:

The mission of the ACLU is to preserve all of these protections and guarantees:

Your First Amendment rights - freedom of speech, association and assembly; freedom of the press, and freedom of religion.

I wonder what changed?

Clip Source: www.onenewsnow.com

The American Civil Liberties Union is asking the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to tell private citizens how and what they can pray before meetings of the Cobb County, Georgia, Board of Commissioners.

The ACLU actually suggested to the court that Cobb County officials be ordered to send letters to invited clergy telling them "not to invoke religious messages" in their opening prayers and the commissioners' meetings.

This is religious bigotry; it's anti-free speech; it's everything that they're supposed to be against. The idea that the ACLU would want the government to tell people how they should or should not pray is outrageous."

the fact that the ACLU is trying to use the power of the government to tell people how to pray is just an incredible invasion of freedom, and [it] shows that they are not about freedom and liberty at all. They're about oppression and trying to stamp out religious speech."

Tags: aclu, government, prayer, free speech, religion