[Cobra64]

Don’t forget, “The Stupid Party.” Republicans have no guts and no common sense.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

Don’t forget, “The Stupid Party.” Republicans have no guts and no common sense.

Don’t forget, “The Warren Court.”

Did you ever wonder why the laws against pornography and libel survived the ratification of the First Amendment? Antonin Scalia explained.

As Freepers generally know, ratification of the Constitution was a close-run thing. The opposition of the Antifederalists focused on the absence from the document of a bill of rights. So as a price of getting the Constitution itself ratified, the Federalists promised what became the first ten amendments, which we know of as the Bill of Rights.

The Federalists were on their mettle to compose a bill of rights which

1. would satisfy the demands of the Antifederalists,
2. would satisfy their own objections that listing some rights would inevitably leave other rights unmentioned and, in principle, denigrated. And,
3. would actually be ratified. The Federalists couldn’t afford to be seen to be putting poison pills in the proposed amendments which would prevent the actual adoption of the amendments.

So the Bill of Rights contains eight Amendments stipulation rights which were noncontroversial, and which very little opposition could be raised against them. The listed (“enumerated”) rights refer to the kinds of abuses historical tyrants had committed. That still left all manner of traditional rights - like raising your own children, etc - which were not enumerated. Those, the Federalists covered by

Amendment 9

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

Amendment 10

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

The right to sue for libel is an unenumerated right. And the right to prosecute pornography is, as well.

If 1A has simply said, “freedom of the press,” that would be the meaning that people ignorantly assume. But instead 1A refers to the freedom of the press - that is, freedom of the press within understood limits recognized before the adoption of the Constitution. Scalia explains

But in Times v. Sullivan, Scalia said the Supreme Court, under Justice Earl Warren, “… simply decided, ‘Yes, it used to be that … George Washington could sue somebody that libeled him, but we don’t think that’s a good idea anymore.’”

JUSTICE SCALIA: THE 45 WORDS — AND ORIGINAL MEANING — OF THE FIRST AMENDMENT

It is time, and past time, for the Republicans to consign the Times v. Sullivan decision to the nether regions, and sue the journalism cartel for libel - and for antitrust violations.