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#Post#: 21080--------------------------------------------------
Re: Free Speech
By: patrick jane Date: November 26, 2020, 5:57 pm
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[img]
HTML https://www-images.christianitytoday.com/images/120641.png?w=700[/img]
HTML https://www.christianitytoday.com/edstetzer/2020/november/scotus-gets-it-right-religious-liberty-church-is-essential.html
SCOTUS Gets It Right on Religious Liberty: Church IS Essential
But the right outcome here doesn’t mean all restrictions are
invalid or that churches should reopen.
Last night, the Supreme Court issued injunctive relief to houses
of worship challenging New York City’s COVID-19 restrictions on
in-person gatherings, the first time it has granted such relief
during the pandemic. I have mixed views about the decision and
early reactions to it.
First, I don’t think this decision is as momentous as
commentators are suggesting. It is fairly fact-specific
injunctive relief, and the nature and scope of pandemic orders
vary greatly around the country. It’s hard to generalize much
from this decision, and I’m concerned that public messaging
about it will fuel a broader culture wars narrative from
religious leaders like John MacArthur who insist “there is no
pandemic” and continue to hold services for 7,000 unmasked
people. An injunction against a 25-person cap is not a green
light to return to regular worship. Given the current state of
the pandemic, it’s not even a yellow light.
The dire rates of transmission we’re seeing all around the
country, the Thanksgiving holiday travel, and our growing
awareness that indoor, in-person gatherings are a major cause of
transmission all increase the likelihood that even more
restrictions may be coming. That’s another reason it’s best to
view this order as limited and fact-specific.
That said, I think the Court’s decision is correct and offers
some important observations. One of the most important is that
these shutdown orders cause irreparable harm because they
restrict First Amendment freedoms—and that virtual worship is
not a constitutionally sufficient alternative. In other words,
worship is absolutely an “essential activity” and to say
otherwise is constitutionally incorrect and politically unwise.
The New York City order and others like it should not be
classifying worship as non-essential. Of course worship is
essential.
That doesn’t mean worship may not be restricted. Earlier this
year, the Court denied injunctive relief to a challenge against
California’s restrictions affecting houses of worship. Chief
Justice Robert’s concurrence supporting California’s
restrictions seemed largely correct to me. In many cases,
limitations on houses of worship will be constitutionally
permissible policy decisions.
The New York City order is an example of policy overreaching.
The constitutionality of other orders will depend upon local
context and the degree to which restricted activities share
comparable characteristics. Justice Gorsuch’s concurrence in
last night’s decision gets too cute, comparing worship services
to bike shops and liquor stores:
[T]he Governor has chosen to impose no capacity restrictions on
certain businesses he considers “essential.” And it turns out
the businesses the Governor considers essential include hardware
stores, acupuncturists, and liquor stores. Bicycle repair shops,
certain signage companies, accountants, lawyers, and insurance
agents are all essential too. So, at least according to the
Governor, it may be unsafe to go to church, but it is always
fine to pick up another bottle of wine, shop for a new bike, or
spend the afternoon exploring your distal points and meridians.
Picking up a bottle of wine and attending a lengthy worship
service are not comparable activities when we consider where
people are located, how they’re moving, and what they’re doing.
We would need to know a lot more before buying into Justice
Gorsuch’s closer: “Who knew public health would so perfectly
align with secular convenience?”
Justice Gorsuch rightly notes that we are past the pandemic’s
early stages and we know much more about the virus today. But
it’s not clear which way that cuts. On the one hand, many houses
of worship are taking precautions that appear to be effective
(as noted by the evidence presented in this case), and certainly
better than activities like in-person dining. On the other hand,
the pandemic is getting worse.
The elephant in the room is all of the latitude given
restaurants and bars, whose gatherings seem far worse for the
pandemic than limited-number, masked, indoor worship. As Amanda
Mull observes in The Atlantic:
Why can’t a governor or mayor just be honest? There’s no help
coming from the Trump administration, the local coffers are
bare, and as a result, concessions are being made to business
owners who want workers in restaurants and employees in offices
in order to white-knuckle it for as long as possible and with as
many jobs intact as possible, even if hospitals start to fill up
again.
She’s right. That’s bad news for the pandemic, but it also
weakens governmental responses to constitutional claims by
houses of worship. Keeping Home Depot open while limiting houses
of worship might make sense. Keeping restaurants and bars open
while restricting houses of worship at the level of NYC’s order
is much harder to defend.
Of course, questions of law and governmental policy speak only
to what houses of worship may do, not what they should do. At a
time when much of the country is sick and suffering and much of
the country is partying and dining, many houses of worship
continue to comply voluntarily even when orders have exempted
them. That’s a tangible sign of loving one’s neighbor, even at
great cost.
John Inazu is the Sally D. Danforth Distinguished Professor of
Law and Religion at Washington University in St. Louis. He is
the author of Liberty’s Refuge: The Forgotten Freedom of
Assembly (Yale University Press, 2012) and Confident Pluralism:
Surviving and Thriving Through Deep Difference (University of
Chicago Press, 2016), and co-editor (with Tim Keller) of
Uncommon Ground: Living Faithfully in a World of Difference
(Thomas Nelson, 2020).
#Post#: 23352--------------------------------------------------
Re: Free Speech
By: patrick jane Date: January 4, 2021, 7:47 pm
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[img]
HTML https://www-images.christianitytoday.com/images/121312.jpg?w=700[/img]
HTML https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2021/january/jericho-march-dc-election-overturn-trump-biden-congress.html
Jericho March Returns to DC to Pray for a Trump Miracle
Protesters are putting the pressure on Pence to act on the
president’s behalf when Congress meets to confirm the Electoral
College votes.
A die-hard group of Trump supporters hopes 2021 will start with
prayer, fasting, and perhaps a miracle.
Organizers of the Jericho March, slated for Tuesday and
Wednesday, have called on “patriots, people of faith and all
those who want to take back America” to travel to Washington on
those days for a pair of marches to overturn the recent
presidential election.
Marchers plan to blow ritual Jewish horns called shofars on the
first day before circling the Supreme Court building seven times
in imitation of the Israelites’ siege of the city of Jericho
described in the Bible’s Book of Joshua. On Wednesday, they plan
to do the same around the US Capitol building.
The demonstrators will also pray that Vice President Mike Pence
and members of Congress will reject slates of electors from
Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia, and Nevada, where Trump
loyalists claim there was rampant election fraud.
Courts in those states, along with federal courts, including the
US Supreme Court, have rejected a series of lawsuits filed by
supporters of President Donald Trump, ruling that there was no
evidence of election fraud. Former US Attorney General William
Barr told the Associated Press in early December that the
Department of Justice had found no evidence of wide-scale
election fraud.
Preceding the two days of protest, the organizers will hold
candlelight prayer vigils and “self-led” marches in the nation’s
capital. Similar marches will take place in the states where
marchers claim the elections were fraudulent.
In mid-December, a rally in Washington organized by the same
group of pro-Trump activists featured speakers such as Eric
Metaxas and MyPillow founder Mike Lindell. The same day, members
of the far-right militia the Proud Boys burned Black Lives
Matter banners at two DC churches.
Metaxas and other evangelical Trump supporters have held a
series of evening prayer calls featuring pro-Trump figures such
as Michael Flynn, a former presidential adviser who pleaded
guilty to lying to the FBI and was later pardoned by Trump,
along with religious leaders who prophesied that Trump would be
reelected.
Jericho March organizers said in a statement that they demand
that administration officials, including Pence, intervene in the
election.
“Vice President Pence has the ability to elect the President
himself and Jericho March calls on him to exercise his rightful
power in the face of the blatant election fraud and corruption,”
the group said in a statement.
Pence will preside in the Senate on Wednesday when Congress
meets to confirm the votes of the Electoral College. Federal law
requires him to accept the slates of electors that have been
certified by states, according to legal experts.
The announcement of the Jericho March came after Republican Sen.
Josh Hawley of Missouri announced he would object to the results
of several states being certified. Hawley is one of a dozen GOP
senators and many more House Republicans who are expected to
reject Biden’s win.
Conservative Republican Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska accused his
colleagues of putting political ambition above the nation’s good
and trying to disenfranchise millions of American voters.
“Adults don’t point a loaded gun at the heart of legitimate
self-government,” he wrote.
More than 2,000 religious leaders, including former World Vision
president Rich Stearns, have signed a statement organized by
progressive faith groups that calls on Congress to honor the
election results and avoid “a delayed and drawn-out objection,”
the AP reported.
Several well-known anti-Trump evangelicals, including Southern
Baptist author and Bible teacher Beth Moore and author and First
Amendment lawyer David French, have denounced the way that
evangelical supporters of the president have embraced conspiracy
theories.
“I have never seen anything in these United States of America I
found more astonishingly seductive & dangerous to the saints of
God than Trumpism,” Moore said on Twitter in mid-December. “This
Christian nationalism is not of God. Move back from it.”
#Post#: 23429--------------------------------------------------
Re: Free Speech
By: patrick jane Date: January 6, 2021, 7:27 pm
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HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vc2inyogQ34
#Post#: 25713--------------------------------------------------
Re: Free Speech
By: patrick jane Date: February 24, 2021, 9:38 am
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BANNED! Twitter Blocked Our Voter Fraud Evidence | Louder with
Crowder
Twitter SUSPENDED our account for a short video simply saying we
independently found voter fraud. HUGE mistake on Twitter's part.
We also recap Tuesday’s hearings on the Capitol riot. And why is
it okay for Joe Biden to put “kids in cages"?
1 hour
HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeWUi5yZEBY
#Post#: 25752--------------------------------------------------
Re: Free Speech
By: patrick jane Date: February 25, 2021, 12:51 pm
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HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzUnMtGdrV4
#Post#: 31855--------------------------------------------------
Re: Free Speech
By: patrick jane Date: June 18, 2021, 4:51 am
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HTML https://thumbnails.texastribune.org/3texTipcOVBDt8xMZmjbhOJ5f5M=/850x570/smart/filters:format(webp):quality(75)/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/b46299514b9b2d78ae1ff6ce8c4a03a2/Big%20Tech%20Social%20Media%20Icons%20IS%20TT.jpg
HTML https://www.texastribune.org/2021/03/30/texas-soical-media-censorship/
Texas Senate approves bill to stop social media companies from
banning Texans for political views
Some experts have raised doubts whether the bill will hold up in
court.
The Texas Senate early Thursday approved a bill that would
prohibit social media companies with at least 100 million
monthly users from blocking, banning, demonetizing or
discriminating against a user based on their viewpoint or their
location within Texas.
Senate Bill 12, sponsored by Republican state Sen. Bryan Hughes
of Mineola, was approved after 2 a.m. Thursday. The measure,
which would apply to Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, among
others, would also require the companies to disclose their
content moderation policies, publish regular reports about the
content they remove and create an appeals process for user
content that has been taken down.
The Texas attorney general would be allowed to file suit against
any company that violates a provision of the bill. If upheld in
court, the attorney general could recoup "reasonable" attorney's
fees and investigative costs.
Experts have raised doubts about the legality of the measure.
Hughes acknowledged that, if signed into law, SB 12 would almost
certainly be challenged in court. He repeatedly referred to
social media platforms as common carriers, though they have
never been classified as such by law or in the court system.
Common carriers, such as phone companies and cable providers,
are private or public companies that transport goods or people
and are barred by government regulators from discriminating
against customers.
“Even though they’re private actors, because they are common
carriers, because they chose to enter this business and offer
their services, then they are bound by certain rules,” Hughes
said.
Facebook and Google, which owns YouTube, did not respond to
requests for comment. In remarks before Congress last week,
company executives denied removing content or blocking users
based on their viewpoints.
A Twitter spokesperson declined to comment specifically on SB
12, but said in a statement that the platform enforces "the
Twitter Rules judiciously and impartially for everyone on our
service — regardless of ideology or political affiliation — and
our policies help us to protect the diversity and health of the
public conversation."
The bill heads to the House, where two identical bills have been
filed but so far have not moved forward in the State Affairs
Committee.
During Tuesday’s debate on the bill, state Sen. Roland
Gutierrez, D-San Antonio, pointed out that while Facebook and
Twitter would be included under the measure, websites such as
Parler and Gab, which are popular among conservatives, would be
left out because they have fewer than 100 million monthly users.
He proposed an amendment that would have lowered the threshold
to 25 million monthly users, but it was voted down by a vote of
21-10.
Hughes stressed that the measure seeks to protect all
viewpoints. But at a press conference earlier this month, Gov.
Greg Abbott announced his support for the measure and chided
social media companies for leading a “dangerous movement” to
“silence conservative ideas [and] religious beliefs.”
The rhetoric about silencing conservatives ramped up following
the 2020 election, when platforms including Facebook and Twitter
removed former President Donald Trump’s account for inciting
violence during the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol insurrection. Prior to
that, the platforms attached warnings to posts by Trump and
other conservatives who were, without evidence, sowing doubt on
the legitimacy of the election.
Republican politicians have long targeted technology giants —
accusing them of an anti-conservative bias and for silencing
free speech, even though the actions to ban members were often
in response to credible evidence that communications were
inciting violence. A February report by researchers at New York
University found that “there are no credible studies showing
that Twitter removes tweets for ideological reasons.”
In a congressional hearing last October, Facebook CEO Mark
Zuckerberg told lawmakers that “Democrats often say that we
don’t remove enough content, and Republicans often say we remove
too much.”
“The fact that both sides criticize us doesn’t mean that we’re
getting this right, but it does mean there are real
disagreements about where the limits of online speech should
be,” he said.
Twitter in January purged more than 70,000 accounts linked to
the dangerous conspiracy theorist group QAnon for the movement’s
connection to the U.S. Capitol attack.
Hughes in 2019 filed a similar measure that won Senate approval,
but it ultimately died in committee in the Texas House.
Florida Governor Signs Social Media ‘Censorship' Bill
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation Monday as part of
his campaign to reign in Big Tech companies when it comes to how
they handle the information they collect from consumers and in
how social media platforms treat their users.
DeSantis said the bill, signed at Florida International
University in Miami by the Republican governor, cracks down on
what he called social media "censorship" while safeguarding
Floridians' ability to access social media platforms.
"One of their major missions seems to be suppressing ideas that
are either inconvenient to the narrative or which they
personally disagree with," DeSantis said.
The bill also imposes hefty financial penalties against social
media platforms that suspend the accounts of political
candidates. The bill would fine companies $250,000 a day for
doing so.
DeSantis launched his offensive against social media companies
in February when he accused platforms like Facebook and Twitter
of censoring conservative ideology.
DeSantis said social media platforms have become modern-day
public squares, and the governor and others have accused social
media companies of censoring conservative thought by removing
posts or using algorithms that reduce the visibility of posts.
The bill, SB 7072, requires social media companies to be
transparent about content moderation practices and give notice
to users of changes to those policies.
Florida's attorney general can bring action against technology
companies that violate the law, under Florida’s Unfair and
Deceptive Trade Practices Act, and social media platforms found
to have violated antitrust law will be restricted from
contracting with any public entity, DeSantis said.
#Post#: 35194--------------------------------------------------
Re: Free Speech
By: patrick jane Date: October 4, 2021, 8:00 pm
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HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zsgq-mLyz18
#Post#: 35455--------------------------------------------------
Re: Free Speech
By: patrick jane Date: October 25, 2021, 4:53 pm
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"You Can SHOVE YOUR JOB!!” Why Are MILLIONS Quitting Work?!
One in four people have quit their jobs this year, including 4.3
million in October alone. Why is this happening?
12 minutes
HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_32hy0FLoec
#Post#: 37290--------------------------------------------------
Re: Free Speech
By: patrick jane Date: February 14, 2022, 10:21 am
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Trudeau and Doug Ford NWO puppets
2 minutes
HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKwMX39KEPM
#Post#: 38458--------------------------------------------------
Re: Free Speech
By: patrick jane Date: April 4, 2022, 1:07 am
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HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoUW0iR8ewU
The “democratic” country of Canada is following up actions
during the trucker protests with a new bill to regulate online
speech.
#Censorship #Canada #FreeSpeech
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