On 2/5/06, Wojtek Sokolowski <wsokol52 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>
> --- Jim Devine <jdevine03 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > is, then he doesn't belong on the list. It's DH's
> > living room, as they
> > say, and DH can kick out anyone he wants to.
>
>
> Not necessarily, if it is considered "public space" -
> see:
> http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/amendment01/20.html
> <<<Quasi-Public Places .--The First Amendment
> precludes government restraint of expression and it
> does not require individuals to turn over their homes,
> businesses or other property to those wishing to
> communicate about a particular topic. 115 But it may
> be that in some instances private property is so
> functionally akin to public property that private
> owners may not forbid expression upon it. In Marsh v.
> Alabama, 116 the Court held that the private owner of
> a company town could not forbid distribution of
> religious materials by a Jehovah's Witness on a street
> in the town's business district. The town, wholly
> owned by a private corporation, had all the attributes
> of any American municipality, aside from its
> ownership, and was functionally like any other town.
> In those circumstances, the Court reasoned, ''the more
> an owner, for his advantage, opens up his property for
> use by the public in general, the more do his rights
> become circumscribed by the statutory and
> constitutional rights of those who use it.'' 117 This
> precedent lay unused for some twenty years until the
> Court first indicated a substantial expansion of it,
> and then withdrew to a narrow interpretation.
>
> First, in Food Employees Union v. Logan Valley Plaza,
> 118 the Court held constitutionally protected the
> picketing of a store located in a shopping center by a
> union objecting to the store's employment of nonunion
> labor. Finding that the shopping center was the
> functional equivalent of the business district
> involved in Marsh, the Court announced there was ''no
> reason why access to a business district in a company
> town for the purpose of exercising First Amendment
> rights should be constitutionally required, while
> access for the same purpose to property functioning as
> a business district should be limited simply because
> the property surrounding the 'business district' is
> not under the same ownership.'' 119 [T]he State,''
> said Justice Marshall, ''may not delegate the power,
> through the use of its trespass laws, wholly to
> exclude those members of the public wishing to
> exercise their First Amendment rights on the premises
> in a manner and for a purpose generally consonant with
> the use to which the property is actually put.'' 120
> The Court observed that it would have been hazardous
> to attempt to distribute literature at the entrances
> to the center and it reserved for future decision
> ''whether respondents' property rights could,
> consistently with the First Amendment, justify a bar
> on picketing which was not thus directly related in
> its purpose to the use to which the shopping center
> property was being put.'' 121 >>>
>
> However, later decisions reversed some of that ruling
> and affirms the property right. I am pretty sure
> Justin has more to say on this subject. I just want
> to add that (i) even a socialist-leaninng forum can
> benefit from capitalist constitutional laws and
> prperty rights; (ii) I pretty much agree with Justin's
> position on the 1st amendement, as I believe that
> (iii) censorship only adds gravitas to the censored
> speech, in many cases more than its content may
> possibly warrant; it make it look more serious than it
> actually is.
>
> Wojtek (next in line for the ax)
>
> __________________________________________________
> Do You Yahoo!?
> Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam
> protection around
> http://mail.yahoo.com
>
> __________________________________________________
> Do You Yahoo!?
> Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
> http://mail.yahoo.com
> ___________________________________
> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
>
-- Jim Devine
"The price one pays for pursuing any profession or calling is an intimate knowledge of its ugly side." -- James Baldwin