Today College Republicans go on trial at San Francisco State for stepping on flag pictures to show their rejection of terrorism. From FIRE’s Torch:
After the College Republicans held an anti-terrorism rally on campus, at which they stepped on pieces of butcher paper drawn to resemble the flags of Hamas and Hezbollah, an SFSU student filed a complaint with the university accusing the students of “attempts to incite violence and create a hostile environment†and “allegations of actions of incivility†for “walking on a banner with the word ‘Allah’ written in Arabic script.†(The banners in question were the Hamas and Hezbollah flags, which unbeknownst to the College Republicans contained the word “Allahâ€). The university should have dismissed this complaint outright, since the only conduct complained of was constitutionally protected expression.
There’s no question that burning (or stomping) a flag is protected as political speech.
About Joanne
The Pingback in Response #1 is:
http://hezbollahblog.info/show-trial-at-san-francisco-state/
Anybody know if this is a pro-Hezbollah Blog?
It’s clearly what’s called a “splog” — a spam blog, created to display ads. It doesn’t have anything to do with politics or education. Splogs just “scrape” random text from other sites, slap it on a free blog with advertising, and hope to make money.
I’ve deleted the pingback.
The U.S. Supreme Court held in the widely publicized decision Texas v. Johnson (1989) that flag desecration as an act of political protest is protected by the First Amendment)
Doesn’t FIRE realize that the University is in San Francisco? The laws of the US don’t apply there.
By looking at what is taking place in the Universities now we can see what will be the future if (when?) the Left takes over. As in any totalitarian society, there will be no free speech.
Here’s the WEB-site for the SFSU College Republicans:
http://www.gatorgop.com/
I suppose like all “collitch kids” .. they could use financial support ..
It is time to cut the cord on Frisco State and stop insulting them with government money. Let the armies they recruit for pick up the tuition.
Richard Nieporent–
Why do you credit “the Left” with the complaint filed at SFSU?
Or are you suggesting that the university’s decision represents “The Left”?
That seems a contradiction — that a university administration can be for censorship and claim to be liberal, much less leftist.
Yes, intellectual ambiguity exists — people who think that the pursuit of “social justice” justifies violations of individual rights.
Those people are confused.
Stupid, even.
But so are people who say if you don’t love this country you ought to leave, that if you oppose the decisions of our government you are a traitor.
Such people might think themselves loyal Americans but they are actually opposing their own constitution — as are the folks at SFSU…
And what do you make of the fact that the ACLU — an organization that is oftened labeled as being on the extreme left — is on the side of the protestors?
Let’s get beyond the labels.
If intelligent people ban together, whether they agree or disagree, perhaps we can save the republic….