Posted on 12/26/2019 5:11:37 PM PST by Impala64ssa
A member of Beth Israel Congregation in Ann Arbor, Mich., is suing anti-Israel protesters and city leaders over weekly demonstrations outside the synagogue.
The 85-page complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for Eastern Michigan.
“The First Amendment right of free speech does not entitle a speaker to use that right repeatedly to bludgeon, for weeks and years at a time, in the same location,” stated the lawsuit. “The First Amendment … is subject to appropriate limitations on its continued and repeated usage.”
The lawsuit, filed on behalf of Beth Israel Congregation member Marvin Gerber, claims that the demonstrations violate Ann Arbor ordinances and calls for restrictions on what it deems “harassing conduct.”
It also sought unspecified retribution for emotional distress.
“The conduct of the protesters is having an adverse emotional effect on Jewish children and young adults who, approaching the synagogue, see the signs/placards insulting their religion and denouncing their loyalty to Israel,” stated the lawsuit.
Ann Arbor Mayor Christopher Taylor, protester Henry Herskovitz and his two organizations—Jewish Witnesses for Peace, and Palestinian Friends and Deir Yassin Remembered—are listed as defendants.
Deir Yassin Remembered has been labeled as a Holocaust-denying group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Herskovitz said his organization seeks to hold those in the synagogue accountable for supporting Israel.
While Taylor and other city officials have criticized the protests and want them to cease, they’ve noted they’re unable to stop them because of the First Amendment, reported MLive.com.
“The city has worked with synagogue leadership and congregants for years on this issue,” said Taylor. “I recognize the pain caused by the protesters, and it’s disgusting. We believe we’ve acted in accordance with our legal obligations.”
Either we have freedom of speech or we don't.
The church should get people to stand outside the church with bull horns and sheets to block the sound and view from people going into church.
While I support the synagogue completely, I’m afraid a liberal judge will make a decision that will begin the slow slide to restricting freedom of speech.
I’d rather the city fix this in some way — without recourse to establishing a legal precedent.
I guess the 1A means nothing
sorry, ignore the fools
Suing them just gave the trolls what they wanted, a response
Maybe what they need is a couple dozen patriots to surround him during services and exercise THEIR first amendment rights too.
This didn’t used to happen much because you’d simply get your ass handed to you. That place needs a Sampson to knock out some teeth.
Challenge them with more speech. May be the best way to deal with them.
Your freedom to speak out against the government is a God given right that the government is forbidden from infringing (though amazing how much infringement they get away with.)
I'd love to see how the local government reacts to being a named party, how protest zones play into this (after all, if they can put a protest zone blocks away from a political event, why should a church be subject to it at their doorstep year after year...)
Ultimately, you have a clash of two fundamental rights - the freedom of religion and the freedom of speech. Their intention is to hold the membership's freedom of religion hostage to their speech.
The only question I have is how quickly the courts let the city squirm out from the lawsuit.
I am of the opinion that the protestors did not get there by walking. Use public information that is available and find out who the protestors are and give them a taste of their own medicine.
Fight back! I am tired of taking it from the left....
There’s a line between speech/ protest and harassment/intimidation. What if this was the clan gathering outside a black church every week - you can bet they’d be shutting that stuff down real fast.
The “protests” have been going on for 16 years. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lly8fIlHRaE
We don’t - not in an absolute sense. That isn’t in the First Amendment.Justice Scalia pointed out that 1A proscribes "abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.” Freedom of speech and press - limited by porn laws and libel laws - existed before the Constitution was ratified. 1A was crafted not to impact existing regulation of “free” speech/press.
The thing to understand about the Bill of Rights is that the Federalists were all about getting the Constitution ratified and thereby ending the rudderless Articles of Confederation. To get that ratification, the Federalists - who hadn’t wanted to incorporate a bill of rights for reasons that the Ninth Amendment illuminates - had to promise to get a bill of rights ratified as amendments to the Constitution.
So the intent of the Bill of Rights was not to break new ground in the field of rights but precisely the opposite - to make it hard to break new ground in the field of rights. To the extent that rights are a zero-sum game - I lose a right if you gain the right to prevent me from exercising it - that was the only option open to the Federalists.
The first eight amendments “enumerate” rights which historically had been abused by tyrants. The Ninth Amendment is a catchall for all other rights:
It would have been a fool’s errand to try to enumerate all rights; courts have been parsing that for hundreds of years after the composition of the Bill of Rights.
- Amendment 9:
- The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
Trolls ought to join them with signs like that pseudo-Baptist church that pickets funerals with stuff about gays, maybe some KKK signs.
Jewish Witnesses for Peace (based in concept on the old pro-Sandinista, pro-Castro, pro-FMLN terrorist groups and supporters of ‘Witnesses for Peace’ (led by the communist Rev. Lucius Walker, IFCO), is a small handful of self-hating, Israel hating Jews whose role today is to play Palestinian KAPO to Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah.
They are traitors to Judaism, to Israel and the U.S. By their treason you shall know them.
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