If you would like to be added or dropped from the Michigan ping list, please freepmail me.
Part 2 of the ongoing Lennox/Peters saga. Interesting stuff. I hate it when I agree with the ACLU about anything, but, well, there ya go.
Posted on 11/28/2007 10:14:45 AM PST by RedsHunter
The American Civil Liberties Union has concerns that Central Michigan University is violating the First Amendment with regards to political expression.
The ACLU sent a letter to Central Michigan University President Michael Rao Tuesday demanding that the ban on videotaping U.S. Congressional candidate Gary Peters on the grounds of a public university, be rescinded.
CMU junior Dennis Lennox, contacted the ACLU after he received a letter from Dean of Students Bruce Roscoe. The letter stated that Lennox could not videotape anyone, including Peters, on campus without prior permission. The letter also stated that this rule applies to all students, and not just Lennox.
The flap between Lennox and Peters began last summer when then-Michigan Lottery Commissioner Peters was named the Griffin Endowed Chair in American Government at CMU. That privately-funded position was created by Republican U.S. Sen. Robert Griffin, a CMU alumnus, to bring in political professionals to teach about politics from the inside.
Then Peters announced he would run for the U.S. House as a Democrat against Republican Joe Knollenberg, who represents Oakland County.
“Peters refuses to decide between Congress and campus,” Lennox said, “even though he signed a contract.”
Lennox has been spearheading a campaign against Peters and is the creator of a group called Students Against Gary Peters.
According to the ACLU, this is not their concern. Their concern is the ban on videotaping only.
Lennox, who graduated from the conservative Leadership Institutes Campus Leadership Program, had been videotaping Peters on campus and inside campus buildings. The program, based out of Arlington, Va., is set up to train and reward those students who “have a desire to fight the left on campus,” according to recruitment documents posted on the Leadership Institutes Web site.
Lennox wanted answers from Peters, so he began following him around on campus with a video camera to get them.
In the letter Roscoe sent to Lennox on Oct. 15, he stated that Lennox was banned from videotaping anyone on campus without their permission.
“You may not record any members of the campus community in hallways or in their offices or residences without receiving their permission,” the letter to Lennox stated.
The ACLU thinks otherwise.
The ban on videotaping violates Lennox’s First Amendment right to engage in political advocacy, Michael J. Steinberg, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan said.
“If the First Amendment means anything, it means that individuals may engage in political advocacy,” he said.
“Even if we find it distasteful.”
“While some may find Mr. Lennox’s method of videotaping and posting recordings on the Internet objectionable, it is a protected means of engaging in political expression,” he said.
Roscoe disagrees.
He stated in his letter to Lennox that his actions are not protected by the First Amendment.
“Recording others is not expressive activity; it is not protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution,” Roscoe wrote.
The letter also stated that if Lennox was caught videotaping on campus without permission he would be charged with a violation of the Code of Student Rights, Responsibilities, and Disciplinary Procedures.
Lennox refused to speak with the Morning Sun and has asked that all questions be directed to the ACLU.
“Since receiving the letter, Dennis Lennox’s political behavior has been unnecessarily chilled. Mr. Lennox claims that the Dean of Students’ letter has stifled his freedom to engage in political discussions or fully disseminate his point of view,” the letter from the ACLU stated.
“We hope that the good people at Central Michigan University follow the Constitution and do the right thing,” Steinberg said.
CMU officials have until Dec. 10 to respond to the letter.
CMU spokesman Steve Smith said the letter has been turned over to CMU’s general counsel Eileen Jennings.
“We did receive the letter and the general counsel is reviewing the content of it” Smith said.
“In the past we have always been considerate of the ACLU’s opinion,” he said.
Here in St. Louis the National Park Service does not allow video taping on the grounds of the St. Louis Arch without first getting permission. Obviously they don’t enforce it unless they need an excuse to boot somebody.
This does seem to be patently unconstitutional.
Is that ice I see in Hades? The ACLU defending a non-Lib must have their founders spinning in the underworld.
Can we next expect to see them defend the other 9 parts of the Bill of Rights? (Holding breath & turning purple)
If you would like to be added or dropped from the Michigan ping list, please freepmail me.
Part 2 of the ongoing Lennox/Peters saga. Interesting stuff. I hate it when I agree with the ACLU about anything, but, well, there ya go.
According to the ACLU, this is not their concern. Their concern is the ban on videotaping only.Yeah, and I believe 'em. /sarc
“Much as I hate to say it, I {gulp} agree with the ACLU on this one.”
No, they are wrong.
It is not about suppression of “free speech” or suppression of political advocacy - no one is preventing Lenox from doing his political advocacy - but, a college campus, your shopping mall, an office or office building is not treated the same as the public square, they are given the status of private property and as such those who own/control that property are given leeway, in first amendment considerations, to reasonable rules regarding activities that take place on the property and mostly that the rules are applied equally. Unless someone demonstrates that the rules being applied to Lenox have not been required of others or are not being applied in equal fashion, I doubt the ACLU position will be upheld. Maybe, they are just looking for some GOP support.
>>Much as I hate to say it, I {gulp} agree with the ACLU on this one.<<
The ACLU is right a lot and does good. But they are infested with an obsession of censoring public expression of Christianity.
Well, as the article indicates, the college administration had no problem with video taping on campus until Mr. Lennox came along.
I do not find anywhere in the article where it indicates: “the college administration had no problem with video taping on campus until Mr. Lennox came along.”
When notified he was taping and notified of objections to it, the administration notified him of the requirements for such taping and that Lennox had no obtained them.
If those requirements (permissions) were the rules all students were required to follow and were equally enforced in the past, then equal due-process for permissible rule making for an activity courts have long granted that such venues have, did not violate any right of Lennox.
They did not say he could not speak to people, including Peters, as part of his personal advocacy on any issue. They said he could not film/video-tape members of the campus community without certain permissions.
Thank you for pointing that out. If you are familiar with this case, you would know that there was no "in the past."
If you remember the ACLU defended Rush in Flordia
“Thank you for pointing that out. If you are familiar with this case, you would know that there was no “in the past.””
One would have to be “familiar” with case beyond what was given in the article, because nothing in the article refers to verifiable past activity of a similar nature - pro or con. If your more “familiar” with the case than the article, concerning the past, thanks for that input and then, on that basis, the GOP guy and the ACLU might have a case. Keep me posted if you are going to continue to follow it. This may be one case where FIRE and the ACLU team up.
True, this whole thing has being going on for some months now, and I've been loosely following it off and on as time permits. One of the more interesting aspects is that while Mr. Lennox was filming in one building, he was "assaulted" by a member of the CMU management who tried to knock his camera out of his hands.
Today's latest news is that CMU is apparently going to try to expel Mr. Lennox for being in violation of some kind of campus rules. The story is on today's edition of RedState.Org and also in the local Saginaw Michigan newspaper, if you'd care to see it.
“Today’s latest news is that CMU is apparently going to try to expel Mr. Lennox for being in violation of some kind of campus rules.”
I am going to forward the article and, if you give me
your permission, your comment, to our friends at FIRE. Many of their cases in the best year have involved the selective application of “campus rules”. Let me know.
Sometimes, they are already informed of a case, and sometimes not.
By all means, share all of that information with whomever you wish. I suspect that Mr. Lennox is going to need all the help he can get with this one and, according to remarks posted on RedState.Org, a legal defense fund is supposedly now in the works to help out with any future contingencies he may encounter. For some reason, his case hasn't seemed to draw much more than casual attention from the local media so far.
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