Thursday, September 23, 2010

A Louisiana University bans political e-mails


Is the First Amendment on trial here?

By de Andréa

Have our “Free Speech” rights been compromised once again?
Officials at Grambling State University in Grambling, La., have dispatched an e-mail to students warning them against forwarding certain political e-mails they may get on the school e-mail system. Although it is an enormous stretch, they say it is because it could violate "state policy."

State Policy? A policy is grounds for violating a constitutional right?
The issue is being highlighted by F.I.R.E. the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, which monitors educational institutions for violations of civil rights. "As the national dialogue increasingly focuses on the upcoming elections, administrators at Grambling State have made the un-American unconstitutional decision to shut down political conversation on campus," said Robert Shibley, the organization's senior vice president.

"The First Amendment protects such core political expression, and as a public university, GSU cannot lawfully prevent students and faculty from speaking their minds about the electoral choices facing our country," he said.
It was an e-mail from GSU's Office of Media Relations that started the problem.

"Individuals who receive political campaign solicitations via university e-mail are advised to delete these e-mails upon receipt," said the e-mail. "DO NOT FORWARD campaign solicitations using university e-mail as this implies your support for the candidate and may be viewed as utilizing university resources for solicitation purposes, a violation of ... state policy."

Amendment precedents, a public university "may not broadly deny its students and faculty members the right to engage in such basic political speech as political campaign solicitations."
F.I.R.E. officials said they explained the U.S. and the Louisiana Constitution, to the college administration, which provides that even a member of the most restricted class of state employees may "exercise his right as a citizen to express his opinion privately." It is not surprising that the Communist programmed college officials have no regard for American liberties. No one could actually misunderstand or be ignorant of the state and Federal Constitutions in regards to “Free Speech”. That only leaves intent, the undeniable intent to undermine and ban the unalienable right of “Free Speech” to American citizens.

The organization argued, "There is little chance that a reasonable person would assume that the sender is speaking on behalf of the university."

"The only thing worse than GSU's blanket ban on political e-mails is the school's erroneous claim that it is required to do so under state law," said Will Creeley, F.I.R.E.'s director of legal and public advocacy. "GSU cannot censor political e-mails out of a misguided fear that clearly private e-mails somehow imply institutional support. GSU must reverse the ban and clarify to students and faculty that they are free to engage in political speech via e-mail as long as they do not claim to be speaking for the school."

Below is a copy of the illegal directive sent out by University officials.

From Mediarelations
Sent Tue. 7/13 2010 2:00 PM
To GSTUDENT
Subject: Campus News IMPORTANT CAMPUS INFORMATION

Grambling State University

Please mak careful note of the following message as well as attatched flyers as they are very important to campus operation,

Political Campaign Solicitation Update

Individuals who receive political campaign solicitations via university e-mail are advised to deliete these e-mails upon receipt. DO NOT FORWARD campaign solicitations using university e-mail as this implies your support for the candidate and may be viewed as utilizing university resources for solicitation purposes, a violation of university and state policy.

END

THE BOTTOM LINE: Unless one is deaf, dumb and blind in this country, and especially on college campuses these days, one can easily see the trend to more and more restriction and erosion of our natural rights. We are clearly on a road to the destruction of our God given inalienable rights. What is even more evident is the manner in which this atrocity is being accomplished as well as how far it has already gone…yes gone.

Goodbye rights hello privileges. So what does it mean to have the right of free speech or any other right for that matter? To demonstrate just how far the destruction of our rights have “gone” let us take just take a look at the first Amendment to see if we ‘even have’ “the God given “right” of free speech anymore, or is it just a “privilege” giving to us by our governments.

According to the dictionary, the definition of a right is… “Something to which one has a just claim”. According to Americas own declaration an ‘American right’ is “unalienable”, (the old English spelling) or inalienable (the modern spelling) inalienable according to the dictionary definition is…“incapable of being transferred or given up”. Incapable of being…given up, why? Why can’t we give these inalienable rights to someone else or give them up? ‘Answer’, because they are not ours to give or take away. The US Declaration of independence says that we “are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights”. Contrary to what our Communist Muslim president has just said by omission, our rights are, in fact, given to us by our Creator; moreover, according to our own declaration the Government or no one else can touch them, infringe upon them, alter them, or restrict them in any way. This means no licenses, no permits can be required and no laws can restrict any right in any way…ever.

Does this sound like our bill of rights? Not anymore my friend ! Not anymore…

Several years ago I was standing on my state capital steps, participating in an organized demonstration. The organizers had applied for and received a permit to hold this demonstration. The opposition had no such permit, so they were restricted to the other side of the street. One of the people from across the street came trotting over to the capital grounds peacefully carrying his sign of opposition through the crowd of demonstrators. Soon the police caught the sign carrying intruder, handcuffed him, and hauled him away. Why? Because ‘he’ did not have a permit to exercise his inalienable right of so-called “FREE SPEECH”.

‘Permit’… to Speak??? “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” (Emphasis mine)

While I recognize that the amendment begins with… “ ‘Congress’ shall make no law…” The Supreme Court has ruled that what pertains to the US Government regarding our rights also pertains to each and every state. In other words states can not make laws violating ones inalienable rights either. Under the preemption statute, States, counties, cities, ‘or colleges’ cannot make a restrictive law, rules, or policies, with greater restrictions than the Federal government is allowed under the U.S. Constitution.

So you see, any armchair lawyer like myself can figure out that no one including and especially governments cannot restrict any right that an American has. And Yet !....

Yes, every one of our rights are restricted in someway, some of them even require a permit, and or a license. So then how can they be an “unalienable right” as our founding documents say? Well… their not my friend… because they are no longer “unalienable rights” at all, THEY HAVE SURREPTITIOUSLY AND INCREMENTALLY BECOME PRIVILEGES!!!

Privileges can be given by ones government, they can be restricted by ones government, and… they can be taken away by ones government.

So how do you like having [non inalienable] privileges given to you by your so-called benevolent government. How do you like having the “Bill Of Privileges” instead of the “Bill Of Rights” my friend??? It all starts in our schools; our children are indoctrinated, robotically programmed to incrementally accept what ever tyrannical oppression our governing agencies dish out.

Did you know that the “Free Speech” clause was included in the First Amendment because the Framers wanted to specifically protect political speech?

Down the road we're traveling on, ‘Freedom’ does not exist…

de Andréa

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