Will America Ban Criticism of Islam?

Canada Free Press ^ | 9/15/2010 | Daniel Greenfield

[nickcarraway]

In 1935 Sinclair Lewis wrote It Can’t Happen Here, a novel about the rise of tyranny in America, whose message was that it indeed can happen here. Just to remind us that in fact it “can happen here”, Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer used the occasion of his appearance on noted legal forum, Good Morning America, to suggest that there may not be any First Amendment protection for burning the Koran.

“Holmes said it doesn’t mean you can shout ‘fire’ in a crowded theater,” Breyer told me. “Well, what is it? Why? Because people will be trampled to death. And what is the crowded theater today? What is the being trampled to death?”

Breyer’s statement was every bit as flippant and ignorant of the Constitution and even previous Supreme Court decisions as you would expect from a Clinton appointee.

To begin with, Breyer misstated what Holmes had said and what he had meant. In Schenk vs United States, Holmes wrote, “The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man falsely shouting fire in a theater and causing a panic.” The key word here is “falsely”. Shouting “fire” in a crowded theater when there really is a fire, is a warning. Shouting it when there is no fire, is a malicious attempt to start a panic. Holmes used the metaphor to argue that freedom of speech was contextual, so that some speech which presented a clear and present danger in a time of war could be banned. An Anti-War argument during peacetime might be legal, but illegal in wartime.

Breyer is relying on a widely discredited decision from almost a century ago, and taking it completely out of context. It’s as if Breyer had decided to pluck Dred Scott vs Sanford,

[CH3CN]

Good thing we still a bunch of hand-held battery operated shredders. Sounds like maybe another OSS.

BSW

[HighlyOpinionated]

The idea that a country would criminalize speech that the enemy doesn’t like seems absurd on the face of it, yet Muslims receive that protection in Europe and even Israel.

[elcid1970]

So.... Justice Breyer thinks that if an example is made of a few of us, the rest will fall into line and be silent about criticizing Islam.... out of pure fear.

That, sir, is fascism. Breyer might as well wear a NSDAP lapel pin (as did many Nazi judges in the Third Reich).

“When I hear the words `Ground Zero Mosque’, I reach for my revolver.”

[highlander_UW]

It's looking more and more likely that there will be political prisoners before Obama’s first term is done. Rather it'll be for objecting to some Obama policy, not buying health insurance or for burning a quran...we are at the doorstep of tyranny.

[TNoldman]

Ban Islam