Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Free Speech and Anonymity - Double Edged Swords

Democrats and liberals and, very possibly, thoughtful Republicans are celebrating a court decision today KOCH INDUSTRIES, INC. vs. JOHN DOES, 1-25

The defendants had issued a hoax press release "purporting to announce a decision by Koch
Industries to stop funding organizations that deny climate change. The press release was emailed to various new organizations and included a link to a website created by Defendants.... Defendants’ website had the same look as the actual Koch Industries site but included the fake press release

Koch Industries sued on several grounds, which the court, the United States District Court for the District of Utah, Central Division, rejected for a number of reasons, basically telling Koch Industries "it was a joke, guys, grow up." (My spin.)

One significant part of the decision, however, is based on a "First Amendment right to anonymity." Several cases have upheld the right to anonymous political speech. See, e.g., http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution
Especially see: McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Comm'n (93-986), 514 U.S. 334, http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/93-986.ZS.html

At the same time as this case being cheered on, President Obama is reportedly drafting an Executive Order which will require federal contractors to disclose their political contributions.

I am not an expert in this area, but the apparent conflict seems to me to be more apparent than real: The executive order isn't stripping away anonymity regardless. Any company can still make anonymous political contributions.

It seems to me that the proposed Executive order would simply say "if you want to do business with us, which is entirely up to you, only then will you lose you anonymity."

I've no doubt this potential conflict will receive scrutiny if and when the executive order is issued.

And if it does, I predict the final analysis will hinge on a weighing of the first amendment right to anonymous political speech as against the right to fair elections.

Sadly, today's Supreme Court majority doesn't seem all that interested in "fair elections" other than "fairness for conservatives and big business."

Time will tell.

Monday, May 2, 2011

US Tyranny Today

What would I like to ask a libertarian? And a conservative? And a progressive?

"Libertarians and conservative Republicans love to refer to the opening paragraphs of the Declaration of Independence (the "DoI"), and especially quote the lines about "the laws of nature and of nature's God" and of the "inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

"And many who claim to revere the DoI suggest that today's political scene raises the same concerns and issues that the founders were dealing with.

"And yet the bill of particulars in the DoI, the list of 27 types of tyrannies imposed by King George, rarely gets mentioned or discussed.

" I ask you to please go through the list of particulars, and tell us who, if anyone is pushing any of those tyrannies today:
  1. Democrats,
  2. Republicans,
  3. the Private Sector, or
  4. No One - Not Applicable

From the Declaration of Independence:

1. He has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
[ ] Democrats [ ] Republicans [ ] Private Sector [ ] Not Applicable

2. He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
[ ] Democrats [ ] Republicans [ ] Private Sector [ ] Not Applicable

3. He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
[ ] Democrats [ ] Republicans [ ] Private Sector [ ] Not Applicable

4. He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
[ ] Democrats [ ] Republicans [ ] Private Sector [ ] Not Applicable

5. He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
[ ] Democrats [ ] Republicans [ ] Private Sector [ ] Not Applicable

6. He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise; the state remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
[ ] Democrats [ ] Republicans [ ] Private Sector [ ] Not Applicable

7. He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands.
[ ] Democrats [ ] Republicans [ ] Private Sector [ ] Not Applicable

8. He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers.
[ ] Democrats [ ] Republicans [ ] Private Sector [ ] Not Applicable

9. He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
[ ] Democrats [ ] Republicans [ ] Private Sector [ ] Not Applicable

10. He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.
[ ] Democrats [ ] Republicans [ ] Private Sector [ ] Not Applicable

11. He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies without the consent of our legislature.
[ ] Democrats [ ] Republicans [ ] Private Sector [ ] Not Applicable

12. He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to civil power.
[ ] Democrats [ ] Republicans [ ] Private Sector [ ] Not Applicable

13. He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation:
[ ] Democrats [ ] Republicans [ ] Private Sector [ ] Not Applicable

14. For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
[ ] Democrats [ ] Republicans [ ] Private Sector [ ] Not Applicable

15. For protecting them, by mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states:
[ ] Democrats [ ] Republicans [ ] Private Sector [ ] Not Applicable

16. For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world:
[ ] Democrats [ ] Republicans [ ] Private Sector [ ] Not Applicable

17. For imposing taxes on us without our consent:
[ ] Democrats [ ] Republicans [ ] Private Sector [ ] Not Applicable

18. For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury:
[ ] Democrats [ ] Republicans [ ] Private Sector [ ] Not Applicable

19. For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses:
[ ] Democrats [ ] Republicans [ ] Private Sector [ ] Not Applicable

20. For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule in these colonies:
[ ] Democrats [ ] Republicans [ ] Private Sector [ ] Not Applicable

21. For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments: *
[ ] Democrats [ ] Republicans [ ] Private Sector [ ] Not Applicable

22. For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. *
[ ] Democrats [ ] Republicans [ ] Private Sector [ ] Not Applicable

23. He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection and waging war against us.
[ ] Democrats [ ] Republicans [ ] Private Sector [ ] Not Applicable

24. He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. **
[ ] Democrats [ ] Republicans [ ] Private Sector [ ] Not Applicable

25. He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation.
[ ] Democrats [ ] Republicans [ ] Private Sector [ ] Not Applicable

26. He has constrained our fellow citizens taken captive on the high seas to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.
[ ] Democrats [ ] Republicans [ ] Private Sector [ ] Not Applicable

27. He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare, is undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
[ ] Democrats [ ] Republicans [ ] Private Sector [ ] Not Applicable

= = =
*In your answer, please take into consideration the current powers and exercise thereof of replacement in Michigan of governmental units with the Governor's appointees

**In your answer, please take into consideration environmental considerations and the effects of "free enterprise" on the environment