Terry Jones case to be decided by jury

De ^ | 04/22/2011 | Ed Brayton

[OldDeckHand]

In a highly unusual case, a jury will decide — for the time being, at least — whether anti-Muslim Florida Pastor Terry Jones will be allowed to hold a protest outside the Islamic Center of America mosque in Dearborn on Friday evening.

State Judge Mark Somers gave Jones the option of paying a $100,000 “peace bond” or face a jury to decide whether he can hold the protest without paying the bond. Jones refused to pay the bond and will go before a seven-member jury beginning at 8 am on Friday.

Jones says he intends to hold the protest no matter what the court decides.

All of this is extremely unusual and almost certainly unconstitutional. The boundaries of the First Amendment are not determined by juries. And the practice of requiring those who wish to protest to put up bonds before holding controversial protests was declared unconstitutional decades ago by federal courts.

This principle goes back to the civil rights era, when cities run by racist leaders who wanted to prevent legitimate civil rights marches would try to charge those who organized those protests for the extra police protection needed to keep them safe from the KKK and others who might react violently to them.

[Emperor Palpatine]

That’s your opinion, which everyone has like everyone has an anus.

However you’re stating an opinion as a verifiable fact.

The rest of us prefer to think for ourselves.

[Responsibility2nd]

Because of the support the Dove Outreach Center organization has for the Westboro Baptist scum.

_____________________________________________

This is just a rumor. But if you have a credible link - please feel free to share it.

[FourPeas]

I’d like to say unbelievable, but it was entire predictable that some excuse would be found to prohibit Jones’ gathering.

[Ransomed]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2584978/posts

What one of the leaders of Jones’ “Dove Outreach Center” has to say about the Westboro loons:

“Westboro Baptist is not anti-military or anti-USA. Rather the opposite, actually. Do some research. They go to funerals because the Bible says that a fallen soldier is a sign of God’s wrath and a reminder of the condition of this world, a fallen world, in sin. We all know that. None of us want to fight wars. We have to, and we honor the fallen for their sacrifice, but funerals are also a chance to repent and get our lives right with God before our own comes along.

The soldier who is already dead knows what’s coming, whether they are in heaven or hell. I think they would be glad for the extra reminder to loved ones that they still have time to make a choice and use the rest of their time given here for God rather than wasting it, in a spiritual sense.”

It’s hard to sort through all the crap when you google the dove outreach center and westboro baptist, maybe they retracted that crap, but I doubt it.

Freegards

[achilles2000]

First, let’s stipulate that he isn’t an “ultra-moron.” Perhaps he is just someone who has the courage to do what needs to be done on a massive scale. Every Mohammedan needs to feel so “uncomfortable” here that he leaves. Otherwise, we will eventually face massive Mohammedan violence here.

[OldDeckHand]

I am absolutely AMAZED by how easily people are fooled and impressed. Terry Jones is an unadulterated idiot. And yet, just because he says something or does something that some might find agreeable, he obtains a kind of "folk hero" status.

It is VERY MUCH like the recent Donald Trump phenomenon. Trump plucks the right birther chord or whatnot, and suddenly he's a conservative hero.

I feel the exact same way about Jones as I do the Klan or Neo-Nazis. They're all morons of the same stripe, but I'd fiercely fight for their right to say and/or do moronic things.

[Recovering_Democrat]

Bttt.

[Persevero]

However, rights not exercised are lost.

Do we want to live in a country where “sacred” books are not allowed to be burned, if we own them?

I do not.

[OldDeckHand]

"However, rights not exercised are lost."

You could say the exact same thing about the Klan, could you not? After all, if you stop parading around in white sheets with pointy white hats through the middle of black neighborhoods, we might just lose the right to parade, right? Or, maybe not.

Just because someone exercises a constitutional right that they have - like burning a book, or a flag or submerging a cross in a jar of cow urine - doesn't mean it's a smart or insightful thing to do, nor does it guarantee other people's right to do it later. Some times doing a douche-baggy thing is just being a douchebag. This just might be one of those times.

[Persevero]

I hear what you are saying. I’d rather have a Christian nation than a pluralistic one. But we currently have a pluralistic one.

So, the Klan gets to march. If they don’t, then neither do the pro-lifers, the veterans, etc.

I believe it was Michael Savage who pointed out that the freedom of speech is in our Constitution to protect UNPOPULAR speech. Popular speech gets a pass. But it is the unpopular that needs protection.

[PoloSec]

That is the best mohammed cartoon I’ve seen.

May piss be upon mohammeds head.

[Gondring]

No, lets not. In what way do you think he is an ultra-moron?

Exhibit A? http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2709047/posts

[Recovering_Democrat]

Bttt.

[equaviator]

The SCOTUS rules in favor of some real ultra morons’ rights to protest at the funerals of KIA veterans the way they do but Pastor Jones can’t even speak of burning a copy of the Koran? REMEMBER 9/11!