Saturday, September 27, 2008

Wilmette Salutes Missouri's Governor, Matt Blunt

Wilmette salutes free speech advocate, Missouri Governor Matt Blunt , who today announced that he has no patience with Missouri law enforcement officials who publicly announced a plan this week which could intimidate certain citizens of Missouri, stifle free debate, and substantially interfere with individual Civil Rights,

In an amazing development, a number of publicly elected law enforcement officials in Missouri banded together to form a "truth squad" for the political candidate of their choosing, using the power of their office to make their announcement. The purpose would be to target individuals or corporations who spoke ill of their preferred candidate, who himself made a request that these officials give him a hand.

Section 1983 of the Civil Rights Act of 1871 prohibits public officials from depriving a person of their Constitutional Rights. While the statute doesn't give any new rights, it does give a person whose rights were violated the right to sue the appropriate governmental body. A textbook case would be a sheriff or states attorney who interfered with your freedom of speech.

Of course, this development could put Missouri in the position of having to pay money to injured citizens if the public officials attempted to interfere with their First Amendment rights. Long time readers know that free speech is a favorite topic of this blog, and we are grateful that Gov. Blunt has made his position clear to those who cherish and use their right to express themselves and their political beliefs.

The most amazing part of this story is that the candidate seeking  formation of the "truth squad" was no one other than Illinois' own Barack Obama who actually taught Constitutional law for many years. Is it any surprise that he has voluntarily relinquished his Illinois law license?

3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

What is your point here?? What don't you just spell out the character attack you are making?

Just what is it that you are trying to say about Obama? That he is doing something unethical or illegal? Do you have an attack to make or are you just bobbing around hoping one of your slurs will hold?

Oh, I forgot, that is what you do what you want to make an attack! My bad!

Sep 27, 2008, 9:30:00 PM  
Blogger Publia said...

Read the statute buddy unless you know it already.

Sep 27, 2008, 10:00:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Barack Obama worked as a Civil Rights lawyer and as a Lecturer in Constitutional Law. He knows that 42 USC 1983 prohibits public officials from depriving citizens of their Constitutional right to free speech. He knows that under 42 USC 1985 that it is unlawful for two or more persons to form a conspiracy to use threats or intimidation to prevent the exercise of civil rights which includes voting. Barack Obama as a Senator took an oath to support and defend the Constitution. By asking public officials to use their office to deprive citizens of their right to free speech or to threaten or intimidate voters is contrary to this oath. This is unethical. It also is problematic if he is a lawyer, but he gave that up. This is unusually calculating.

Sep 27, 2008, 11:59:00 PM  

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