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To: abigkahuna
Is pitching a tent in the center of NYC a first amendment issue? Do a million Tea Partiers marching down Pennsylvania Avenue, each with a rifle slung over the shoulders, have the right to argue that they are practicing freedom of speech?

No and yes. No to the first, because the First Amendment confers the right to speak, not to be given a venue in which to speak. Yes to the second because, under the First Amendment they can argue that they are practicing freedom of speech, and that's the extent of it. The First Amendment does not give them the right to march down Pennsylvania Avenue, each with a rifle over his shoulder. Whether they may legally do so depends upon the laws in effect at the time, but it's not a First Amendment issue.

And remember, civil disobedience does not imply that one performing it must be given a pass on whatever lawbreaking he may do in the process of being civilly disobedient. True civil disobedience involves taking full responsibility for whatever breaches of law that one commits.

9 posted on 11/18/2011 12:18:55 AM PST by Mr Ramsbotham (Laws against sodomy are honored in the breech.)
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To: Mr Ramsbotham

Totally understand what you are saying. So, the answer is, when the citizenry are willing to go “all the way” then the formation of a new order will happen.


10 posted on 11/18/2011 12:22:23 AM PST by abigkahuna
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