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Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard
Can the government ban the text of the First Amendment itself on municipal transit ads because free speech is too "political" for public display? If this sounds like some ridiculous brain teaser, it should. But unfortunately it's not. It's a core claim in a lawsuit we filed today challenging the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority's (WMATA) restrictions on controversial advertising.
[...] Earlier this year, following President Trump's repeated commentary denigrating journalists and Muslims, the ACLU decided to remind everyone about that very first promise in the Bill of Rights: that Congress shall make no law interfering with our freedoms of speech and religion. As part of a broad advertising campaign, the ACLU erected ads in numerous places, featuring the text of the First Amendment. Not only in English, but in Spanish and Arabic, too — to remind people that the Constitution is for everyone.
The ACLU inquired about placing our ads with WMATA, envisioning an inspirational reminder of our founding texts, with a trilingual twist, in the transit system of the nation's capital. But it was not to be: Our ad was rejected because WMATA's advertising policies forbid, among many other things, advertisements "intended to influence members of the public regarding an issue on which there are varying opinions" or "intended to influence public policy."
You don't have to be a First Amendment scholar to know that something about that stinks.
Source: https://www.aclu.org/blog/speak-freely/first-amendment-literally-banned-dc
Also at NPR.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 11 2017, @02:02AM (19 children)
I had the illusion that the United States is a English speaking country..
If people are not willing to learn English to live in US, maybe they should move elsewhere.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday August 11 2017, @02:30AM (9 children)
Has it occurred to you that some of the people who most need to see and understand the First Amendment may be Arabic speakers? Islam isn't real big on freedom of anything, in case you'd not noticed. This is a good way to speed assimilation along.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 3, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday August 11 2017, @02:41AM (8 children)
Agreed. This here great melting pot does not work like "bring your culture in, shove it in everyone's faces, and refuse to adapt to ours". The deal is if you come here you adapt to us and we assimilate anything of your culture we find valuable to our own.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 11 2017, @03:14AM (6 children)
And you were doing so well in this thread. You're a borg piece of crap.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday August 11 2017, @03:36AM
Sorry, bout that. I am not, nor ever will be, a dipshit globalist who believes everyone has a right to their own culture except us.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday August 11 2017, @04:56AM (4 children)
He's not entirely wrong you know. Most Muslims come from cultures that are fundamentally incompatible with the US's (ostensible...) values. I don't think it's unfair to demand that the law of the land be adhered to, because you can be sure as death and taxes that if an American were to emigrate to Saudi Arabia s/he would be expected to follow their laws.
Even a stopped clock is right twice a day. Even if someone is right for the wrong reasons, even if someone is almost always wrong, right is still right when it happens. Let's not commit the genetic fallacy here.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 11 2017, @03:14PM (3 children)
Unless if they're a conservative poster you hate here on SN, in which case fuck 'em
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday August 11 2017, @03:53PM (2 children)
Conservative? Bite my ass, you pinko, commie progtard. I am nothing of the sort.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday August 11 2017, @05:00PM (1 child)
True, I said the wrong thing. You aren't a conservative by any definition of the word: you're a reactionary. I'll be more careful in the future :) Hugs'n'love!
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Friday August 11 2017, @05:04PM
Or possibly just a Republican. Republicans are definitely not Conservative anymore.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Friday August 11 2017, @04:58PM
Agreed. This here great melting pot does not work like "bring your culture in, shove it in everyone's faces, and refuse to adapt to ours"**
** Offer does not apply to Christianity
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Friday August 11 2017, @02:34AM (1 child)
Foreigners are, at least theoretically, afforded 1st Amendment privileges. http://scholarship.law.georgetown.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1302&context=facpub [georgetown.edu] (note, PDF). So it makes sense to provide information in a language they understand.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 11 2017, @04:34PM
They are definitely given the Equal Protection clause of the 14th, otherwise slavery would still be allowed as long as you were bringing in foreigners.
(Score: 2, Troll) by realDonaldTrump on Friday August 11 2017, @02:43AM
It's what my son Eric calls virtue signaling. They don't expect anyone to read a sign in Arabic. They expect you to see the sign, see they wrote in Arabic, and then you think they're smart because they can write in Arabic. They don't give a fuck whether you can read it, they only care that you're impressed with them speaking a foreign language. Believe me, if they wanted Arabs to read their signs in Washington, they'd put them up in my hotel. In the Trump International Hotel in Washington. Honestly, it's like Mecca, it's crawling with Arabs. With Saudis and more. They go there like it's a pilgrimage. And the Trump Organization gets a cut. KA-CHING! The ACLU's signs are very welcome at my hotel. If they pony up. But they won't because they don't care about Arabs. They're trying to reach you, if you're in the 18-49 demo. 🇺🇸
(Score: 4, Insightful) by jelizondo on Friday August 11 2017, @02:49AM (3 children)
Right because when the British arrived the place was uninhabited and therefore the first language ever spoken here was English!
You idiot! America was inhabited and then many pieces were taken from other countries with people speaking other languages BEFORE they were forcefully or otherwise made part of the U.S., i.e., Texas, Arizona and New Mexico from Mexico (Spanish), Florida from Spain (Spanish), Louisiana from the French (French).
If you want to speak English move to Japan or some other place, because you see even in the U.K. many other languages are spoken and are official, same as with the U.S. of A.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 11 2017, @03:01AM
On California voting forms. Personally given the demographics here, I am surprised Farsi, Arabic and Sanskrit aren't included as well.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 11 2017, @04:17AM (1 child)
And now the country is the United States and the de facto language is English, if not 'American.' I am, in plurality, Native American - Sioux. Yet here I am speaking 'American' and even living abroad eating hotdogs and hamburgers. And I hold no ill will to any other person in the country for what their ancestors did to mine. It doesn't even make any sense to me. The nature of the world is, for better or for worse, that the strong overcome the weak. People need to learn to assimilate and get over themselves.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday August 11 2017, @12:36PM
Preach it, my wagon-burning brother. No, our ancestors weren't enslaved; they were just damned near wiped from the face of the earth. And yet the vast majority of us get the hell over it. We have completely integrated and even thrived in our reality. Some folks really could take a lesson.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 11 2017, @05:45AM
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Friday August 11 2017, @03:01PM
"I had the illusion that the United States is a English speaking country."
Apparently not! You certainly suck at the language. ESL?
Impeach Donald Saruman and his sidekick Elon Sauron