A new provision tucked into the Patriot Act bill now before Congress would allow authorities to haul demonstrators at any “special event of national significance” away to jail on felony charges if they are caught breaching a security perimeter. So I’ll quote the first amendment, the holy grail of the Bill of Rights… “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.” Kinda means next to nothing now…
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3 responses to “First Amendment?”
Kinda extreme in your logic there, aren’t ya? Somehow I don’t see “breaching a security perimeter” as falling into the category of “peaceably assemble”
Maybe so, but the whole thing still reeks of the current administration denying the public their right to “petition the Government for a redress of grievances” by usually placing these security perimeters miles away from the events…
That’s a completely different argument but I agree it is quite valid. However, we’re talking about a “special event of national significance” and not just any demonstration. We’ve always done whatever we could to protect our citizens during any kind of organization or demonstration. Allowing another demonstration to be held too close could cause severe unstableness especially when you’re talking about a topic of national signifcance. I don’t disagree that this section of Patriot Act comes close to infrining on our First Ammendment right to assemble, but I don’t see it infrining on our right to speak freely which is what the First Ammendment is truly about.