Travel Alert
If you’re planning to travel anytime soon to the far West (specifically Arizona, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, California, Alaska or Hawaii), you should be on notice that you’ll have to be very careful about what you say. The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (which has jurisdiction over those states), has declared that it is unconstitutional for you to express the opinion that homosexuality is morally wrong.No, the court didn’t rule that it was impermissible for you to scream at or otherwise intimidate someone because he was a homosexual. No, they didn’t rule that you were barred from burning down the home of a homosexual.
Instead, the court ruled that it was Constitutionally impermissible for a student to wear to school a shirt that said, “"Be Ashamed, Our School Embraced What God Has Condemned," and on the back, it said, "Homosexuality is Shameful." The unconstitutional student apparently wore the shirt in response to an event sponsored by his school's “Gay-Straight Alliance.”
The Circuit Court opinion does not rely on the possibility that such speech might disrupt the educational activities of the school, but instead simply insists that some opinions are sufficiently offensive that they cannot be expressed. And presumably judges will decide what is and what isn’t a permissible opinion.
The mind rebels. Let us know which of these t-shirt slogans are permissible in the Ninth Circuit: "Black is Beautiful," "White Power," "White Men Can't Jump," "Girls Rule, Boys Drool," "I Have Two Mommies." How about a shirt sporting one of those Danish cartoons of Mohamed? Or one which instead says "Death to America?"
You see, it appears that it is not the subject matter of the opinion, but the opinion itself that is offensive and impermissible. That is, one side is right, while the other side is not only wrong, but not allowed to talk anymore.
Read it for yourself: Harper v. Poway Unified School District.
The Honorable Alex Kozinski dissented, HERE.
Via The Volokh Conspiracy.
Presented for your delectation by the Gentleman Farmer at 6:15 AM
Comments on "Travel Alert"
-
Anonymous said ... (10:44 AM) :
post a commentBecause Gentleman Farmer is too modest to point it out, readers may wish to know that, when both of them were young, Gentleman Farmer appeared before Alex Kozinski, when the latter was a trial judge. GF won that case before Alex the K. Later, the Court of Appeals reversed, heaping scorn on both Judge Kozinski and Gentleman Farmer.
Later still, the Supreme Court of the United States determined (9-0) that Alex the K and Gentleman Farmer had been correct, and that the Court of Appeals was full of crap.