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Weaponizing the First Amendment: How Free Speech Became a Conservative Cudgel
NY Times ^ | 6/30/18 | Adam Liptak

Posted on 06/30/2018 12:43:54 PM PDT by Libloather

WASHINGTON — On the final day of the Supreme Court term last week, Justice Elena Kagan sounded an alarm.

The court’s five conservative members, citing the First Amendment, had just dealt public unions a devastating blow. The day before, the same majority had used the First Amendment to reject a California law requiring religiously oriented “crisis pregnancy centers” to provide women with information about abortion.

Conservatives, said Justice Kagan, who is part of the court’s four-member liberal wing, were “weaponizing the First Amendment.”

The two decisions were the latest in a stunning run of victories for a conservative agenda that has increasingly been built on the foundation of free speech. Conservative groups, borrowing and building on arguments developed by liberals, have used the First Amendment to justify unlimited campaign spending, discrimination against gay couples and attacks on the regulation of tobacco, pharmaceuticals and guns.

(Excerpt) Read more at mobile.nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Editorial; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 1stamendment; amendment; conservative; free; freespeech; speech
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Algore once said 'the debate is over'.
1 posted on 06/30/2018 12:43:54 PM PDT by Libloather
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To: Libloather
"I never give them hell. I just tell the truth and they think it's hell."

-Harry Truman

2 posted on 06/30/2018 12:46:00 PM PDT by Steely Tom ([Seth Rich] == [the Democrat's John Dean])
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To: Libloather
On the final day of the Supreme Court term last week, Justice Elena Kagan sounded an alarm.

She farted?

3 posted on 06/30/2018 12:46:59 PM PDT by Eddie01
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To: Libloather

We are really going to weaponize the 2nd amendment going forward


4 posted on 06/30/2018 12:47:12 PM PDT by BRL
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To: Libloather

what goes around, comes around


5 posted on 06/30/2018 12:47:19 PM PDT by kaehurowing
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To: Libloather
The union thing is now SETTLED LAW
6 posted on 06/30/2018 12:48:31 PM PDT by BRL
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To: Libloather

Why don’t they just use the Commerce Clause? That works for everything. /sarc


7 posted on 06/30/2018 12:48:38 PM PDT by Cowboy Bob ("Other People's Money" = The life blood of Liberalism)
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To: Libloather

Liberal tears, they’re delish!


8 posted on 06/30/2018 12:50:06 PM PDT by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
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To: BRL

Though the way liberals view things, once something is decided the way they want it decided, then it’s settled law.

So there’s no going back on abortion or homosexual marriage.

But anything that doesn’t get decided in the liberal direction is always something the liberals say should be revisited.

And they mean that at some future point, when liberals are in control, that’s when liberal judges will decide it and make it settled law.


9 posted on 06/30/2018 12:50:34 PM PDT by Dilbert San Diego
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To: Libloather
How dare the peon-ry hide behind their God given right to free speech, religion, and assembly, for the purposes of Freedom.

You're supposed to recite your devotion to the deep state. Pray to the deep state god, moloch, and only associate with fellow baby sacrificers.

10 posted on 06/30/2018 12:50:50 PM PDT by Sirius Lee (In God We Trust, In Trump We MAGA)
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To: Libloather

Freedom of speech includes not being forced to say something that you don’t believe.

Prenancy centers, which should be called Caring Pregnancy Centers instead of Crisis Pregnancy Centers, should not be forced to communicate about abortion mills when obviously they are morally opposed to them.

The Supreme Court was right.


11 posted on 06/30/2018 12:51:30 PM PDT by Architect of Avalon
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To: Libloather

From even a quick perusal of the article it is clear that the “death to America” crowd only favors court decisions which help them kill America.

Face it: any law requiring religiously oriented crisis pregnancy centers to provide women with information about abortion is draconian by its very nature. And fundamentally un-American.


12 posted on 06/30/2018 12:52:06 PM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either satire or opinion. Or both.)
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To: Dilbert San Diego

Yes I know. It is just so much fun to cram “settled law” back at them


13 posted on 06/30/2018 12:52:09 PM PDT by BRL
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To: Libloather

Adam “Liplock On 0bama’s Posterior” Liptak weighs in...


14 posted on 06/30/2018 12:52:47 PM PDT by kiryandil (Never pick a fight with an angry beehive)
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To: Libloather

And Kagen “weaponized” her big mouth. Nag, nag, nag. She’s not my ex-wife so she needs to STFU.


15 posted on 06/30/2018 12:53:16 PM PDT by FlingWingFlyer (Don't pass up the opportunity to use the Second Amendment today! IT'S FREE!)
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To: Libloather

16 posted on 06/30/2018 12:53:20 PM PDT by MUDDOG
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To: Architect of Avalon

Bingo.


17 posted on 06/30/2018 12:53:54 PM PDT by traderrob6
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To: Libloather

Kagan again reveals herself to be an ideologue not an impartial Justice ruling on the Constitution.


18 posted on 06/30/2018 12:58:26 PM PDT by TigersEye (This is the age of the death of reason.)
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She is exactly correct. The 1st amendment IS the weapon to stop lies, emotion-based faux litigation and all anti-American Constitutional originalist movements. Nuke ‘em all then again to churn the molten sands.


19 posted on 06/30/2018 12:59:04 PM PDT by USCG SimTech
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To: Libloather

The first amendment is intended to be a weapon - to be used by the people to take power away from government. In the two cases sited in the excerpt that is exactly what the courts did.


20 posted on 06/30/2018 1:02:26 PM PDT by InABunkerUnderSF (Time to BLOAT again.)
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