http://www.firstamendmentcoalition.org/2009/10/high-court-hears-arguments-animal-rights-versus-free-speech/ Defending Your Freedom of Speech & Right to Know Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:38:03 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://www.firstamendmentcoalition.org/2009/10/high-court-hears-arguments-animal-rights-versus-free-speech/comment-page-1/#comment-145069 jim reynolds Thu, 20 Jan 2011 05:00:54 +0000 http://www.firstamendmentcoalition.org/?p=4292#comment-145069 "You gotta be kidding me!" That was my first thought as I pondered the recent Supreme Court ruling negating a law making it a crime to sell videos of extreme animal cruelty. "This can't be right", I screamed inside my head. How can you not see that videos such as these are not only sick, they may lead to more cruel behavior? Someone who may not be quite right in the head in the first place may well be influenced to some kind of copy cat behavior. It was then I came back to reality...the ruling did not infer that such insensitivity is okay. The Supreme Court was simply sending a message to Congress about a constitutional issue called free speech. You see, apparently, Congress wrote the disputed law too broadly. The law, as written, may have potentially covered other activities that may seem cruel to some (hunting as an example). Trapping with those old steel jaws of pain may be another example. While these activities are cruel, even more cruel is to record these things for the intent to show them as, entertainment? I, personally refuse to search for such a video, but I understand you can watch such fun things as a woman's high heel piercing through a small animal; or, how about an underwater video of someone drowning a puppy or a cat? Boy, that's entertainment! Someone pass the popcorn, please. Free speech is always under attack by someone at one time or another. I'd love to be able to wave a magic wand and make every video on earth depicting some cruel act simply disintegrate - you know, like the old mission impossible. "This tape will self-destruct in 5 seconds." But I can't do that, and neither can anyone else. What we do as a civilized society is to ask our elected officials to do something about it. That's what they were trying to do when the Supreme Court pointed out the error in the law they drafted. That's why we have a Supreme Court; to make these tough decisions. We may not always agree, but you must admit, it is good to have such a burden passed on to nine wise individuals, working always to keep our Constitution intact. “You gotta be kidding me!” That was my first thought as I pondered the recent Supreme Court ruling negating a law making it a crime to sell videos of extreme animal cruelty. “This can’t be right”, I screamed inside my head. How can you not see that videos such as these are not only sick, they may lead to more cruel behavior?
Someone who may not be quite right in the head in the first place may well be influenced to some kind of copy cat behavior. It was then I came back to reality…the ruling did not infer that such insensitivity is okay. The Supreme Court was simply sending a message to Congress about a constitutional issue called free speech.
You see, apparently, Congress wrote the disputed law too broadly. The law, as written, may have potentially covered other activities that may seem cruel to some (hunting as an example). Trapping with those old steel jaws of pain may be another example. While these activities are cruel, even more cruel is to record these things for the intent to show them as, entertainment?
I, personally refuse to search for such a video, but I understand you can watch such fun things as a woman’s high heel piercing through a small animal; or, how about an underwater video of someone drowning a puppy or a cat? Boy, that’s entertainment! Someone pass the popcorn, please.
Free speech is always under attack by someone at one time or another. I’d love to be able to wave a magic wand and make every video on earth depicting some cruel act simply disintegrate – you know, like the old mission impossible. “This tape will self-destruct in 5 seconds.” But I can’t do that, and neither can anyone else. What we do as a civilized society is to ask our elected officials to do something about it.
That’s what they were trying to do when the Supreme Court pointed out the error in the law they drafted. That’s why we have a Supreme Court; to make these tough decisions. We may not always agree, but you must admit, it is good to have such a burden passed on to nine wise individuals, working always to keep our Constitution intact.

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