Will Courts Defend Free Speech -- Or Forced Speech To Promote A Political Agenda?

Forbes ^ | September 25, 2017 | George Leef

[reaganaut1]

One of the great liberal (in the true sense of the word) decisions by the Supreme Court is West Virginia Board of Education v. Barnette, the 1943 case where the justices struck down a law that forced school children of the Jehovah’s Witness faith to salute the flag and recite the Pledge of Allegiance or face punishment for declining to do so.

[...]

Today’s “liberals” have forgotten the wisdom of Barnette. They care little about liberty and instead desire to impose their ideas by force.

We see their authoritarianism popping up all around, and one place is mandatory speech. A number of states have enacted laws that require pregnancy clinics to post signs informing women who go there for help that the government has made family planning services, including abortion, available at low cost or even free. Even if the people who operate the clinic believe that abortion is morally wrong, they must post the sign or, like the Jehovah’s Witness children in Barnette, face punishment by the government.

Hawaii has enacted such a law and it is under challenge in federal district court. In Calvary Chapel Pearl Harbor v. Chin, the plaintiff argues that the law is unconstitutional. As attorney Ken Connelly of the Alliance Defending Freedom, which is assisting the plaintiffs, argues here, “No one should be forced to provide free advertising for the abortion industry, least of all pro-life centers that exist to help women choose life for their babies.”

He’s right. Those who favor abortion have abundant resources to inform women of that option and where to obtain one (even at taxpayer expense) without forcing people who do not favor it to spread their message.

[reaganaut1]

Other examples of coerced or prohibited speech are the laws requiring the use of a "transgendered" person's desired pronoun, even when it conflicts with reality, and the laws to ban conversion therapy for homosexuals and people with gender dysphoria.

[Starboard]

The courts will defend THEIR version of free speech.

[I want the USA back]

There is no freedom of speech. It is a nice myth that we were taught in school, with no basis in reality. The government enforces the prohibition on certain thoughts by proxy - in public schools and colleges which are run by the government. You can lose you job, reputation, family and life for having certain thoughts.
You will be arrested for carrying a “Jesus” sign near an abortion clinic.

[yoe]

Today’s “liberals” have forgotten the wisdom of Barnette. They care little about liberty and instead desire to impose their ideas by force.

(Germany's propaganda master)

"...Gobbels use of propaganda to promote the party and its programme" unmatched until America's far left seized power from learning institutions of all types to promote their Marxist ideas and the placing of Social Justice jurists in as many courts as possible....our law schools are just as tattered and torn.