Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: justshutupandtakeit
Free speech in support of an Enemy has never been constitutional.

Then it won't hurt if this judge outlaws a vague provision of the Patriot Act (which was hurried through Congress so fast some members never got to read the entire list of things they were voting to now make illegal.)

Actually, though, I'm wondering if it's ever been constitutional to ban political free speech, because if it has been, I can sure think of numberous exceptions. During the cold war, look at all the people who spoke up in favor of communism and the Soviet Union. Right up till the moment the Berlin Wall came down you could turn on KPFK radio here in Los Angeles and listen to people calling in with heavy Russian accents to defend the Soviet Union and attack the US.

Remember the Speaker of the House who wrote the "Dear Commandante" letter to Daniel Ortega. Nothing every happened to him or to the other members of congress who went to Nicaragua to advise the Sandinistas how best to deal with the Reagan administration.

Or how about Jane Fonda who was photographed in a flak helmet sitting in an North Vietnamese anti-aircraft battery. Then when she got home she said that all Americans should get down on our knees and pray that this country goes communist. She was aiding and abetting and doing everything but giving back rubs to our enemies but she was never prosecuted either.

Or what about all the anti-war protesters at Berkeley who were forever marching down Telegraph Ave carrying North Vietnamese flags and shouting their support for Ho Chi Minh? Except for the ones who started robbing banks or building bombs nothing happened to them either (many of them are on law faculties, holding comfortable government jobs or still seducing yet another generation of dewy-eyed coeds at brie and chablis parties at their bayview houses in the Berkeley hills).

123 posted on 01/26/2004 6:03:46 PM PST by Benjo
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 87 | View Replies ]


To: Benjo
The only thing vague was the judge's reasoning. There is nothing vague about making aiding officially declared terrorist groups illegal.

The Cold war was not an official war so it was not like WWII when such speech would definitely have been prosecuted.

Same thing was true wrt Nicaragua and Vietnam. Had there been a declaration of war prosecutions would have ensued.
182 posted on 01/27/2004 1:53:02 PM PST by justshutupandtakeit (America's Enemies foreign and domestic agree: Bush must be destroyed.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 123 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson