Posted on 09/14/2010 6:19:55 AM PDT by kristinn
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer has expressed a willingness to ban protesters from burning the Koran as the modern day equivalent of shouting fire in a crowded theater.
The Supreme Court has ruled burning the American flag in protest is protected speech under the First Amendment of the Constitution.
Breyer spoke to George Stephanopoulos on ABC's Good Morning America today:
But Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer told me on "GMA" that he's not prepared to conclude that -- in the internet age -- the First Amendment condones Koran burning.
“Holmes said it doesn’t mean you can shout 'fire' in a crowded theater,” Breyer told me. “Well, what is it? Why? Because people will be trampled to death. And what is the crowded theater today? What is the being trampled to death?”
Breyer is promoting his new book, Making Our Democracy Work.
Breyer was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1994 by President Bill Clinton.
Desecrating a Christian symbol by putting a crucifix in a jar of urine is protected speech, yet desecrating an Islamic symbol is not?
Either both get equal protection under the law or it is simply religious tyranny by the liberal elites.
Our elite rulers are nothing if not cowards.
If they feared us, they would not be able to do even a fraction of the nonsense they currently get away with.
Is it too much to ask for a little consistancy?
They are consistent - both flag burning and prohibiting koran burning are constistent with their desire to destroy Western civilization.
See the D’Souza article on 0bama as an anti-colonialist, and you’ll see their mindset.
n 1999, the city-funded Brooklyn Museum of Art came under fire when it exhibited a Chris Ofili painting of the Virgin Mary that featured sexually explicit cutouts covered with elephant dung. The Catholic Church, as well as New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, were outraged. Giuliani denounced the exhibit as morally offensive and threatened to cut off funding to the museum and terminate its lease if it did not cancel the exhibit that included Ofili’s painting. The city followed through and withheld the museum’s rent payment for October and filed a state lawsuit to get the lease revoked.
As a countermeasure, the museum filed a suit in federal court against the city claiming violations of the first ammendment, and seeking a permanent injunction against the city to keep it from withholding funds. U.S. District Judge Nina Gershon, sided with the museum, and granted them a preliminary injunction. The city was also ordered to resume the museum’s funding, and to stop any eviction proceedings.
Apparently, if we start killing random people every time someone burns a flag, we can get the Supreme Court to ban flag-burning.
Thanks, Souter, for telling our enemies that if they kill us when we do things they don’t like, you will allow the government to ban those things.
Hmmm. If more abortion doctors are killed, will he vote to support a ban on abortion? See how absurd his argument is?
Is it OK to shout “theater!” in a crowded fire house?
Back in college they were having an opening ceremony at a new firehouse and I actually almost did this to see if anyone understood.
*Is the government going to enter every house and see who has a Koran? Are they going to check every bonfire or fireplace?*
Don’t burn, don’t tell?
This guy doesn’t make sense.
Guess I was wrong!
The first amendment to the U.S. Constitution states:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
It seems to me that Breyer's position on this issue fails on multiple counts:
1) can't respect an establishment of religion
2) can't abridge the freedom of speech
3) Anyone who reacts to a burning or desecration of the koran is not the same as someone in a theater who panics because they think a fire is there. With a fire, you feel in danger of your life. To see someone burn a koran does not cause anyone to panic from an uncontrollable catastrophe such as a fire.
The analogy fails, and to apply that analogy is but another extension of the meaning beyond its intent.
Either few are learning to apply logic anymore, or they only try to twist that logic to make language mean something that it doesn't.
Indeed. But you know, I suspect many of the guys at the Alamo for example had to be a little nutty, too.
Any other constitutional amendments he wants to do away with while he’s at it?
Jones has shamed others into standing up to the bully, though.
Both bullies, actually - the leftists in general, and the Islamists in particular.
So if I threaten to become violent and go on a killing spree when a liberal burns the American flag, are we going to ban flag burning?
Is the right to free speech and freedom of expression dependent upon whether or not a group of people becomes angry enough to respond violently?
What if burning a koran is a legitimate tenet of my religion? Don’t I have the right to practice my religion even if it makes others angry?
This proposal to ban koran burning is ignorant!
Precisely. Please take this moron's job.
If I write down a passage of the Koran and then highlight and delete it... have I destroyed a Koran?
If my 1st grader uses her colors to write Koran on a piece of paper that I later throw away... Have I desecrated a Koran?
If I post a picture of a Koran on a website, with flames licking at it... have I burned a Koran?
If a Jew who runs a publishing company prints Korans... Does that make the Koran tainted... and if their is a typo and he discards all the printings in the trash... has he committed a hate crime?
This is nuts.
Excellent comment. Thanks.
This person is unfit for such a duty, what a shame we have such dumb people in powerful positions.
Well, the upside is that he's comparing the danger that is "Islam", to a raging inferno inside a confined space. He's right about that, although I'm sure that's not what he meant.
Perhaps, but then they would have to find someone with standing to file an injunction.
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