Supreme Court Upholds Ban on Cross Burning, Rejects Free Speech Claim

AP ^ | 4-7-2003

[BamaGirl]

That's awesome!

Anyone who can quote Eminem has got to be cool! :D

[Sandy]

I'd better be careful when I build my campfire that two logs don't accidentally sit at right angles to each other--that might frighten someone and get me in trouble.

Get real. Intent must be established in a court of law. Read the opinion for crying out loud.

[Age of Reason]

Intent must be established in a court of law.

This whole can't-cry-fire-in-a-theater-business is already getting out of hand.

I think people should be allowed to cry fire in a theatre, and if people don't like that, then they can stay out of theaters--and get a life instead.

That way, we will no longer have a slippery slope--which can be more dangerous than a burning theater.

[Age of Reason]

But, of course, the masses must be placated with bread and circuses, so the powers that be need those theaters to keep the plebians amused and bemused.

[Age of Reason]

that perhaps I'm being dogmatically libertarian about all this

LOL

If you think you're being dogmatically libertarian, scroll-down this thread to see my posts 43 and 44!

[arasina]

"My fear is ... that you're actually underestimating the symbolism of, and the effect of, the cross, the burning cross," Thomas said.

The protections afforded by the First Amendment "are not absolute," she wrote.

I'm glad the ban on cross burning was not overturned and I absolutely love Justice Thomas's wisdom on law. Now I wish someone would place a ban on burning the United States flag here in America. The flag is a symbol of hard-fought-for freedom and I am intimidated and feel threatened when people use their "right of free speech" and burn it!

[JohnnyZ]

Anyone who can quote Eminem has got to be cool! :D

I agree :) It just came to me . . . a moment of sheer brilliance . . . hey what's a BamaGirl doing in Cali? PdD, I'm guessing?

[tuna_battle_slight_return]

The guy with the sign is pro-life? What? What! Oh...

[BamaGirl]

hey what's a BamaGirl doing in Cali? PdD, I'm guessing?

Yeah, just here for school. I went to college on the East Coast, and so I thought I would see what the West side was like. What a disaster! I can't wait to get out of the "Banana Republic!" The only thing good about CA is that it is where FreeRepublic was born! :D

[Cosmo]

ROTFLMAO!...I'm in a library right now and my neighbor in the next cubicle is looking at me like I'm nuts

FIRE FIRE (insert Beavis inflection)

Feel the gin

[stand watie]

YEP!

FRee dixie,sw

[GirlShortstop]

Clarence is the man.

I hear ya!

And a question for those who've determined (from a news article!) that SCOTUS' decision is wrong:   would it not be helpful to supply/post excerpts of the decision, and the points to be debated (not to mention some substantiation for their predispositions)?   That would provide for more interesting reading.   FReegards.

[mac_truck]

You're next!

[stainlessbanner]

Good point, farmfriend.

[LetsBeReal]

I think cross burning and flag burning is not right. I think with the way cross burning has been used that most people would concider it racial. And flag burning goes even accross the boundaries of being racial because many different races have fought for the freedoms that this nation enjoys so much.
If the flag has no meaning then why do people want to burn it? Because they want to p!ss people off. I guarantee you that if you were to take these people of hatred and disrespect and let them live elsewhere in the world they will learn real fast just how free we really are here and why it means so much to those of us who care. I use to think that we have slowly been losing more and more freedoms until I went overseas and seen just how strict most other countries are. The rights given to us all are there because the people who founded this country did not want to see our country end up like so many others. The flag is a symbol that should be protected by all US citizens because it does not just represent the ones we choose to govern the US but instead it represents all of us. I stand with you in that cross and flag burning does not deserve protection.