The First Amendment...(Historically Speaking) - Episode #13
A weekly program on UPTV hosted by Frederick Douglass Dixon.
By: UPTV6
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The First Amendment...(Historically Speaking) - Episode #13 - Video
Journalism First Amendment Project
By: MaryL224
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Journalism First Amendment Project - Video
1st Amendment Interview
Friends Discuss the First Amendment.
By: KeeganTurnbough
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1st Amendment Interview - Video
The First Amendment rights of judges are a hot topic these days.
Just a few days ago, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments on whether states can bar judicial candidates from soliciting campaign donations without violating their speech rights.
Across the coast in California, the states highest court has decided that judges there will no longer be allowed to belong to nonprofit youth organizations that discriminate on the basis of race, sex, sexual orientation or other criteria, effectively barring membership to the Boy Scouts of America.
The group wasnt mentioned specifically by name, but the California rule was proposed last year in response to the Boy Scouts policy of excluding gays from staff and leadership roles. After hearing from scores of judges and lawyers, some of whom fiercely opposed it, the California Supreme Court on Friday voted to adopt the rule, which takes effect next year.
The U.S. Supreme Court case is about the political speech rights of judges, while the California ethics rule deals with limits on free association. But both raise the question of how much First Amendment protection should be granted to judges who have a special duty to be fair and impartial, says Harvard University constitutional scholar Noah Feldmanin acolumn for BloombergView.
Writes Mr. Feldman:
For the moment, the Supreme Court would probably uphold the California ban on judges associating with the Boy Scouts, reasoning that judges are special and that the states interest in controlling their behavior is different from its interest in regulating the Scouts.
Another feature that might conceivably matter is that state judges are also state employees. In last weeks oral argument, the question of state employment arose, with the justices asking whether it made sense for the campaigning activities of sitting state judges to be regulated differently from the campaigning activities of nonincumbent candidates for judicial office.
Yet if the Supreme Court expands the political speech rights of judges this term, it could be the beginning of the end for state laws that limit judges free association. Then we wouldnt be able to rely on the canons of judicial conduct to create the appearance of fairness. We would have to rely instead on vigilance and common sense, and choose judges who are actually fair and actually dont discriminate. Which doesnt sound so bad after all.
A spokesperson for the California Supreme Court didnt have a comment in response to Mr. Feldmans column.
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First Amendment Rights of Judges in the Spotlight
A local man was acquitted by a visiting Franklin County judge Tuesday of criminal mischief in a case that revolved around different interpretations of the First Amendment.
Eliot Kalman, 69, of Athens was arrested on Oct. 28 after being caught placing stickers advocating constitutional separation between church and state on a Church Directory sign affixed to the front of the Athens County Courthouse. Criminal mischief is a third-degree misdemeanor.
During Kalman's trial Tuesday in Athens County Municipal Court, Dale Crawford, a retired judge from Franklin County, ruled that while Kalman, a former president of the local American Civil Liberties Union chapter, has no constitutional right to deface somebody else's property, he did, technically, have a form of permission to deface the Church Directory.
"The defendant (Kalman) in this circumstance has the privilege because the county Commissioners have not taken that (privilege) away," Crawford said in his final statements. "If the county Commissioners want to limit a part of a county building to a specific use and grant it to specific improvement people, they can do so by resolution."
Crawford ruled to acquit Kalman of the criminal mischief charge before the jury could vote on the case after his defense submitted a request for a "rule 29 judgment of acquittal,"a motion a judge can make if evidence on the part of the prosecution is insufficient to sustain prosecution of the case. Crawford granted the motion, and Kalman was declared not guilty by the judge.
After the trial, Kalman was elated, if a bit shaken. "First time I've ever been arrested in my entire life, and it was scary," Kalman said, referencing his Oct. 28 arrest. "I'm relieved that it (the trial) is over. I'm glad that I wasn't found guilty. The nature of a 'directed verdict,'that's what we had... means that they (the prosecution) didn't even come close."
Kalman testified during the trial that he did in fact place the sticker on the glass of the Church Directory on Oct. 28, and his defense corroborated that he had placed similar stickers on the glass multiple times throughout 2014. His defense also provided photographic evidence of other stickers placed on the glass, most of which, Kalman said, were not his. Kalman throughout the trial maintained that he placed the stickers as a statement about the Directory being a violation of the First Amendment separation of church and state.
However, Judge Crawford said in his judgment that he was not in Athens to decide on the appropriateness of the Church Directory's placement outside of the county Courthouse.
"I'm not here to decide whether that's proper or not proper on the county building," he said. "I'll let some other person take care of that issue. It sounds a little simplistic to me."
According to testimony during the trial, the local religious group, Athens Christian Education Committee, maintains the Church Directory sign outside the Athens County Courthouse. Rita Snider, a member of ACEC who was called as a witness by city prosecutors, testified about her organization's perceived responsibilities in regard to the Church Directory, which lists numerous local churches as well as Hillel at Ohio University, a Jewish religious entity.
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Local First Amendment activist acquitted in trial involving Church Directory at courthouse