[SnakeDoctor]

>> The First Amendment 1) was meant to protect speech of a political nature, but if we accept that it protects all speech, pornography still isn’t speech under a reasonable defintion 2) is explicitly applied to the Federal government.

I am not sure if anyone has mentioned this yet ... but the 1st Amendment also applies to State governments, via the 14th Amendment.

The 14th Amendment states, in pertinent part ... “No State shall ... deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law ...”

The “liberties” enumerated in the Bill of Rights have been incorporated into the “life, liberty and property” clause of the 14th Amendment ... which means States cannot infringe on the right to free speech (or religion, or search & seizure, etc.) any more than the Feds can.

H

[fr_freak]

I am not sure if anyone has mentioned this yet ... but the 1st Amendment also applies to State governments, via the 14th Amendment.

That is the current interpretation being used, but the 14th was intended to prevent states from making laws which prevented blacks from being citizens, or from exercising their rights as citizens, such as voting. I believe the relevant passage is this:

"No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."

I'm not a lawyer, but I believe the correct interpretation for this amendment would be that all citizens must be treated equally under state law as well as federal law, and the amendment specifically describes who will be considered citizens. It does not, however, say anything about how the previous amendments, which have wording that specifically refers to the federal government ("Congress shall make no law..." etc.)should now become tools by which the federal government can exert power and interference over state and local governments. As long as any infringements that state or local governments imposed on people were applied equally to all citizens, they should be legal under the federal constitution.