Posted on 04/27/2007 11:36:41 AM PDT by AFPhys
..."It's a great day for freedom of speech in Washington and great day for freedom of speech in America," said Carlson, one of two hosts at the center of the legal dispute...The court's 9-0 ruling was a sharp rebuke of several local governments — including Seattle — that brought the original case. In a concurrence opinion, Justices Jim Johnson and Richard Sanders called it an "abusive" attempt by the municipalities to silence political opponents.
Two years ago, Carlson and fellow KVI-AM host Kirby Wilbur waged an extensive on-air campaign to promote a citizen initiative to overturn a 9.5-cent-a-gallon gas-tax increase approved earlier that year by the Legislature.
...Initiative 912 failed...but...sparked a court battle that drew nationwide attention.
...groups ranging from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, weighed in with legal briefs opposing [original rulingbrought by local governments, which stood to gain from hundreds of millions of dollars in new gas-tax revenues for transportation projects]
To comply with Wickham's ruling, the I-912 campaign reported $20,000 worth of in-kind contributions from Fisher Communications, which owns KVI.
...Since KVI was not controlled by the I-912 campaign, Justice Barbara Madsen wrote for the court, Wilbur's and Carlson's on-air solicitations fell within the media exemption, even if the hosts "acted at the behest" of the I-912 campaign.
...The court also revived a countersuit filed by the campaign, accusing the municipalities of trampling its First Amendment free-speech and free-association rights.
...Michael Vaska, a private attorney from Seattle who was hired to represent the cities and counties in the case, said he was disappointed at the court's interpretation of the media exemption. But, he said, it remains an unresolved dispute that will flare up again in other states.
(Excerpt) Read more at seattletimes.nwsource.com ...
This is a HUGE victory for conservatives as well as the First Amendment!
Anyone know if the Washington Supreme Court is liberal? Because this is the correct constitutional ruling here.
Hopefully, this ruling be used as "precedent" for other attempts by the liberals to silence the conservative hosts?
Kirby was on Mark Levin’s show and said the state court is very liberal. FWIW
Excellent news.
Now lets address the “equal time” requirements!
Just wow.
I wondered because Washington State politics is dominated by large liberal populations surrounding Seattle.
How dare the liberals do the right thing?!!!
I am holding my breath and so far, the earth hasn't cracked in half, opened up and swallowed us all...
LOL....I had to laugh at that.....MOSTLY YES....this state is Liberal LA LA Land.....
Not true. I live in the northwest corner of Washington State... farmers and all. Pretty conservative. As I mentioned in the earlier posts -- most of the state's population resides around and near Seattle and hence is liberal.
http://www.courts.wa.gov/opinions/index.cfm?fa=opinions.showOpinion&filename=779660MAJ
http://www.courts.wa.gov/opinions/index.cfm?fa=opinions.showOpinion&filename=779660Co1
I’ll be reading these later tonight. I hope they’re even close to as entertaining as Robert’s dissension yesterday! It is really worth reading what he wrote, especially if you enjoy cynicism and sarcasm:
Roberts Hits Stevens Over Death Penalty
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1824117/posts
After recovering costs, what sort of imaginative punitive damages could one ask for? Forget lots and lots of money. A great big public apology and acknowledgement of their disregard for basic Constitutional rights would be a minimum opener.
It was just filed this morning. Boortz will surely feature this story, as will Hannity and Levin. All of them have been dealing with this story.
"Not true"
I agree John123. I live East of the Cascades and it is pretty much all conservative. The sad thing is most people believe that the Seattle area is all there is to Washington State.
Their attorneys are still maintaining that their case has merit and that the WA Supreme Court has erred...
But John, you confirm what the poster asserted. He said that we are “mostly” liberal. Sure, the farming areas are not, but as you stated, most of the state pop lives around & in Seattle. I’d say WA State is more liberal then CA. And THAT’S scary.
So, 9 Judges are wrong, but one idiot lawyer ought to take their places—BS.
I assume KVI-AM is a commercial station. What the Left does not understand, and I’ve personally seen Pacifica staff gripe about, is that non-profit stations VOLUNTARILY limit their speech in exchange for a tax exempt status.
They are not permitted to engage in advocacy or campaign for or against any legislation, candidate, or party.
While this is good for commercial talk radio, expect abuses on 501c3 tax cheat radio. Defund the left.
Maybe they would like to take it to the U.S. Supreme Court. And do it on a strictly pro bono basis so we all know they really believe what they are saying.
Not really. It will only be a victory when they get rid of this farce called the "media exemption" and start giving every citizen the same speech rights. Why should the media get more rights than the rest of us? I don't see how freedom of the press (which is suppose to simply mean our speech can be in print -- applied to everyone) has been perverted to mean those who are career journalists are the only ones who get free speech rights.
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