cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/30989415
Texas lawmakers trying to muzzle campus protests have just passed one of the most ridiculous anti-speech laws in the country. If signed by Gov. Greg Abbott, Senate Bill 2972 would ban speech at night — from study groups to newspaper reporting — at public universities in the state.
Ironically, the bill builds on a previous law passed in 2019 meant to enshrine free speech on Texas campuses. But now, lawmakers want to crack down on college students’ pro-Palestinian protests so badly that they literally passed a prohibition on talking.
How does a law explicitly interfering with first amendment rights not get immediately struck down as unconstitutional? Limiting free speech is not even an unintended theoretical side effect of the bill; it’s the expressed purpose.
It still has to be passed before it can make it’s way through the courts to strike it down. And then it depends on the clearly partisan judges in Texas.
The politicians who write these laws should be fined for wasting the taxpayers’ money.
No they should be imprisoned for 90 days, second offense 2 years, 3rd offense 10 years, with no way to appeal.
1st offense: Pillory
2nd offense: Luigi
ken paxton should been in jail for the past decade, but the gop legislature protects him.
Immediately stripped of office for dereliction of duty to the American people. That’s the first step. Fines or jail after, scaled appropriately to the attempted damage they’re trying to cause.
So, like we’d do with a fish?
The fines should be immediate replacement.
The funny thing is, it was not explicitly clear at the time of the founding whether things like the First Amendment applied to States at all. After all, the Constitution applied to the Federal Government, and States had their own government…
… Until after the Civil War, when the 14th amendment was ratified. You might be familiar with the 14th Amendment as it is the one that guarantees birthright citizenship. Well, that’s just it’s first sentence. The second sentence also guarantees all citizens the rights enumerated in the Constitution, making it clear that the States cannot abridge those rights.
But right now, the plain language of the 14th Amendment is under attack by Conservatives who claim that it all of a sudden does not cover people born here whose parents are not citizens. So as long as today’s Conservatives will ignore one part of the 14th Amendment, why not ignore the rest and hope a captured SCOTUS makes it all hunky-dory after the fact!
If that part of the 14th doesn’t apply, then logically none of the people in the former Confederate states are US Citizens.
Pretty sure they don’t want that.
Oh they’ll figure out some tortured logic to make sure they get the outcome they want while screwing over people they hate.
Just to be clear, limiting free speech is already allowed to a degree. The Supreme Court has long ruled that it’s legal to constrain the right to expression based on time, manner, and place restrictions, so long as those restrictions are content neutral, serve a legitimate public need, and are minimally restrictive to serve that need.
This law absolutely does not qualify. I’m sure they will argue it served some bullshit need to prevent disruption to campus activities, issues with policing, pubic safety, etc. But there is no chance that restricting all 1st amendment expression on a college campus for nearly 12 hours a day serves any legitimate public need in the least restrictive manner to serve that need. It will certainly be struck down as unconstitutional by a sensible judge somewhere along the way.
But the problem is that this law is not the goal. They want a judge to strike it down. They are trying to make the legitimate acts of the judicial out to be some sort of overreach on the will of Trump and conservative states. And even when it does get ruled against, they just have to keep appealing until they get to the Supreme Court and let the right wing nuts redefine our 1st amendment rights to suit their desires. Even if this particular law doesn’t survive their decision, you can bet your ass that they will set new precedent with the case that will fundamentally weaken free speech rights for all.
You’re assuming that the supreme court still cares about the spirit or letter of the law. It’s just a rubber stamp for whatever the right wants.