|
Up to the minute notes on the current state of free thinking and free living: Kentucky moonshine - original analysis and reporting from MoreThings, and all round pop culture museum of sight and sound - photo galleries, mp3 and video downloads.
Al Barger and MoreThings - getting people's goats since 1998.
Live free or die!
----
|
April 25, 2003
Nike: Free speech champions
Rand knows I love my Kazaa, but there brews a Supreme Court case on free speech considerably more important than P2P. In the case of Nike v. Kasky, No. 02-575, the Supreme Court could strike a big blow for free speech. Nike has been screwed with for five years under unconstitutional laws regarding "commercial speech" simply for making statements and taking out ads to defend themselves against charges of bad labor practices.
Solicitor General Ted Olson, representing the Bush administration, has suggested sidestepping the basic underlying issue of whether Nike was engaging in First Amendment free speech, but give Nike the ruling on other legal grounds. Boo, hiss. Chickenshit.
The court could decide the case on perhaps several different types of grounds, but the most basic one calling out to them is the artificial legal distinction between protected free speech versus somehow less protected commercial speech. Since the 1942 Valentine v. Chrestensen decision, the court has sort of halfway drifted toward accepting the commified idea that free speech protections do not apply to any person or group who might conceivably in any way make a buck from what they are saying. The constitution details no such distinction. To put it differently, commie-types just made it up out of the air. Deroy Murdock has more HERE.
The most obviously egregious example of how this false distinction harms the public comes from the pharmaceutical industry. Drug manufacturers are prohibited from advertising the results of studies from themselves or other independent groups of benefits that can be derived from using their drugs other than ones formally recognized by the FDA. Doctors and patients get deprived of true and highly useful information. The legal excuse justifying the government's right to censor them is simply that the drug companies might profit from spreading this (true and accurate) information. This is a more egregious violation of civil liberties, one with worse impact on the public, than about anything involved in the dreaded Patriot Act.
Commie left wingers who don't like granting Nike free speech parity might take into consideration what kind of stick this arbitrary distinction represents, and how it can come back to bite you in the ass. Compared to the indirect commercial interest of the specific facts of the Nike case, Eminem records are obviously HIGHLY commercial speech. He's just saying that stuff to make money, so why shouldn't he be subject to reasonable commercial restrictions as to what he can say just like for Nike or drug manufacturers?
In this Nike case, the court could just take a big broom and make a clean sweep. Just say the obvious and true thing that speech is speech, a press is a press. It would clarify and simplify a great many matters, and we would have more freedom.
posted by Al at 4/25/2003 05:22:00 PM
Link Soup
morethings master
photo gallery index
MP3
new album
releases
lyrics
sammy davis
little richard photos
buddy holly pictures
fats domino images
chuck berry pictures 01/
02/
03/
04/
05/
06/
07/
08/
09/
10/
11/
12/
01/
02/
03/
04/
05/
06/
07/
08/
09/
10/
11/
12/
01/
02/
03/
04/
05/
06/
07/
08/
09/
10/
11/
12/
01/02/
03/
04/
05/
06/
07/
08/
09/
10/
11/
12
01/
02/
03/
04/
05/
06/
07/
08/
09/
10/
11/
12/01/
02/
03/
04/
05/
06/
07/
08/
09/
10/
11/
12/08/
09/
10/
11/
12/
la
24
lucille ball images james
blunt photos
clint eastwood pictures lena
horne images team
america pictures
robert mitchum photos
bruce springsteen pictures
mariah carey pictures
ann coulter photos
george clooney images
loretta lynn pictures
beatles pictures
white stripes pictures
andy griffith pictures
kill bill pictures
beverly hillbillies pictures
robin williams
frank zappa pictures
jerry lee lewis pictures
richard pryor photos
june carter johnny cash pictures
vic mackey shield pictures u2 photos
four seasons images
james cagney images
elvis presley pictures
country music
blog
dolly parton pictures
olsen twins photos
tom petty photos
tori amos pictures
joaquin phoenix images David
Bowie photos
Quills movie images
reese witherspoon pictures rolling
stones photos
fiona apple images kim
novak images ray charles photos marx
brothers pictures
prince rogers nelson pictures blazing
saddles images
sinead o'connor images
eddie murphy photos aretha
franklin photos
south park pictures homer
simpson images
bob dylan pictures elizabeth
taylor photos madonna
images
saturday night live pictures willie
nelson images hee
haw pictures james
brown images pete
townshend photos
tina turner pictures
dixie chicks photos
margaret thatcher photos
guns
n roses pictures
paula abdul pictures
jodie foster photos
amy winehouse
eminem
frank sinatra photos
van
halen images
satan
blondie photos
joni
mitchell pictures
merle haggard
images
rocky horror pictures
monty
python
|
|
