FREEDOM OF THE PRESS, U.S. CONSTITUTION, AMENDMENT 1

Enjoy this First Amendment History Lesson!

GIBBS LAW FIRM, P.A.

Attorneys and Counselors at Law

Thank you for contacting the Christian Law Association and our law firm regarding an article you wrote about Jesus for your monthly community newsletter.  You indicated that when another person in the community complained to the editor, and threatened to contact advertisers or file a lawsuit if your article were printed, the editor decided that he would not print your article.  As we discussed on the phone, one of the most important federal constitutional freedoms we have in America is the freedom of the press.  The editor of the newsletter has the freedom to print any article he wishes or to decline any article he does not like for any reason.  He may not like the topic or he may not like the writing style, but the choice is the editor’s choice to make.  No newspaper reader has the right to tell any newspaper editor what he may or may not print.  This is basic Level I Constitutional law.  Similarly, as the author of the article in question you have no more right to demand that the article be printed than the other reader has to demand that the article not be printed.  No newspaper editor in America may be told by any reader or author what editorial decisions he may make with regard to his own newspaper (other than a publisher who could fire the editor for making editorial decisions the publisher disagreed with).  Since you mentioned that the Editor is both the editor and the owner of this particular newspaper, there is no one who can tell him what to print or not print.

As we also discussed, a newspaper reader who does not like something that is printed has a few options.  The reader may cancel his subscription to the paper, he can write a nasty Letter to the Editor and complain, or he can boycott the advertisers.  Of course anyone in America can sue anyone else if he can afford a lawyer, but no court in this country would issue a legal ruling negating the First Amendment Freedom of the Press.  So the decision of whether or not to print your article rests entirely with the Editor.  I am amazed that any American citizen would want to diminish the freedoms we have in this nation merely because of a bigoted view of another religion.  In America, we are free to express our own religious viewpoints, including in newspapers, and we are also free to attempt to convince others that our viewpoint is correct and that others should believe what we believe.  The Editor was correct to invite the complaining reader to write his own article about why his religion is best.  America is not Saudi Arabia or some other Middle Eastern country where proselytizing or conversion are against the law.  Many newspapers used to have regular religion columns, usually on Saturdays, some written by pastors.  Some newspapers still continue this custom. There is absolutely nothing illegal about that.

The readers do have some power, however.  They can cancel their subscriptions if they do not like what is being printed.  This is a numbers game.  Would more people cancel their subscriptions if your article were printed or if it were not printed?  That is something the editor could take into account if he cares about revenue and income.

In the same way, boycotting advertisers is also a numbers game.  Would more people boycott the advertisers if your article were printed or if it were not printed?  That is an economic decision for the advertisers to make.  But none of these decisions are legal decisions.  No one should take a legal threat seriously in this type of circumstance. The editor is protected by Freedom of the Press whatever decision he makes.  And the readers will either live with it or not.  You have the right to start your own newspaper if you like and compete with and print as many religion articles as you like.  The community would decide with their wallets which newspaper they prefer.  This would be an economic threat, not a legal threat.

Please feel free to share this email with the editor, the complaining reader and other interested members of your community.  If the editor were sued for publishing a Christian article, Christian Law Association would be happy to defend him for free.  It would be a quick and easy case to win.  We might even request that the judge fine the plaintiff for filing a frivolous lawsuit.

Sincerely,
Barbara J. Weller
Admitted in Florida

Gibbs Law Firm, P.A.
5666 Seminole Blvd., Suite 2
Seminole, FL 33772
(727) 399-8300
Fax (727) 398-3907

And These Guys are Running Our Country????

Your government at work…

… You’re gonna love this… I still haven’t stopped laughing!

For those of you who have never traveled to the west, or southwest, “cattle guards” are horizontal steel rails placed at fence openings, in dug-out places in the roads adjacent to highways, (sometimes across highways), to prevent cattle from crossing over that area. For some reason, the cattle will not step on the “guards,” probably because they fear getting their feet caught between the rails.

A few months ago, President Obama received and was reading a report that there were over 100,000  “cattle guards” in Colorado.  Colorado ranchers had protested his proposed changes in grazing policies, so he ordered the Secretary of the Interior to fire half of the “cattle guards” immediately.

Before the Secretary of the Interior could respond and presumably try to straighten him out, Vice-President, Joe Biden, intervened with a request that before any “cattle guards” were fired, they be given six months of retraining.

Texas Billboard… Gotta love those Texans!

A Quote from Samuel Adams

“If ye love wealth better than liberty,

the tranquility of servitude better

than the animating contest of freedom,

go home from us in peace.

We ask not your counsels or your arms.

Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you.

May your chains set lightly upon you, and may

posterity forget that you were our countrymen.”

-Samuel Adams, August 1, 1776.

It’s All George Bush’s Fault

Here’s an opinion piece by Chuck Green who writes “Greener Pastures” for the  Aurora Sentinel… one of the more liberal papers in the country.  Additionally, Mr. Green is a life long Democrat… so this is rather a stunning piece…

Solving Problems with Maxine

Everyone concentrates on the problems we’re having in this country lately: illegal immigration, hurricane recovery, and alligators attacking people in Florida. Not me. I concentrate on solutions for the problems. It’s a win-win situation.

• Dig a moat the length of the Mexican border.

• Send the dirt to New Orleans to raise the level of the levies.

• Put the Florida alligators in the moat along the Mexican border.

Any other problems you would like for me to solve today? Yes!Think about these:

1. Cows
2. The Constitution
3. The Ten Commandments

C O W S

Is it just me, or does anyone else find it amazing that during the mad cow epidemic our government could track a single cow, born in Canada almost three years ago, right to the stall where she slept in the state of Washington?  And, they tracked her calves to their stalls.  But they are unable to locate 11 million illegal aliens wandering around our county?  Maybe we should give each of them a cow.

T H E  C O N S T I T U T I O N

They keep talking about drafting a Constitution for Iraq …. Why don’t we just give them ours? It was written by a lot of really smart guys, it has worked for over 200 years, and we’re not using it anymore.

T H E  TEN
C O M M A N D M E N T S

The real reason that we can’t have the Ten Commandments posted in a courthouse is this:
You cannot post ‘Thou Shalt Not Steal,’ ‘Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery,’ and
‘Thou Shall Not Lie’ in a building full of lawyers, judges and politicians.  It creates a hostile work environment.

A Tickle Your Funny Bone Slideshow

Use the arrow keys below to enjoy this silly sideshow:

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Gee… Where are the “Evironmentalists” when you need them?

This layup is on an “Illegal Super-Highway” from Mexico to the USA (Tuscon) used by human smugglers.

This layup area is located in a wash area about a half mile long just south of Tuscon.

We estimate there are over 3,000 discarded backpacks in this layup area, countless water containers, food wrappers, clothing, and soiled baby diapers.  And, as you can see in this picture, fresh footprints leading them right into.  We weren’t too far behind them.

As I kept walking down the wash, I was sure it was going to end just ahead, but I kept walking and walking, and around every corner was more and more trash.

And, of course, the trail leading out of the layup area heading NORTH to Tuscon, and then on to your town tomorrow.

They’ve already come through here.  Is this America the Beautiful, or just another landfill?

The Trash left behind by the illegals is another of the Environmental Disasters to hit the USA.  Had this been done in one of our great Forests or Seashore National Parks areas, there would be an uprising of the American people… But this s a remote Arizona-Mexican border.  You won’t see these pictures on CNN, ABC, NBC, or the Arizona press.  Nor will they mention the disease that comes from the human waste left in the desert… truly a pathetic situation.