{"id":4786,"date":"2009-04-21T09:59:10","date_gmt":"2009-04-21T14:59:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/?p=4786"},"modified":"2009-04-22T12:30:49","modified_gmt":"2009-04-22T17:30:49","slug":"a-broader-question-from-a-questionable-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/2009\/04\/a-broader-question-from-a-questionable-case\/","title":{"rendered":"A Broader Question From a Questionable Case"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I am not sure just what it is with the Thomas More Law Center, but since Ed Thompson left, they’ve done some strange things. First was a silly law suit challenging the TARP act because some of the recipients had shariah-compliant lending programs. Now, it has filed suit<\/a> complaining that the Department of Homeland Security report<\/a> on the “dangers” presumably presented by some ill-defined assembly of right-wing groups violates their First and Fifth Amendment rights.<\/p>\n

To be sure, the report is an embarrassing piece of work<\/a>, essentially saying that there are right-wing groups who feel very strongly about a number of issues and, even thought there is no evidence that any of them are planning any violent or unlawful activity, . . . you know, they could <\/em>because there has been domestic terror associated with the right wing in the past. What is particularly disturbing about the report is the broad brush with which it treats “right-wing” groups. It takes little or no care to distinguish groups that are seen to be, in the report’s words “anti-government” or opposed to “abortion” or “immigration” from those unnamed and, apparently, so far nonviolent groups that might suddenly become terrorists. There is little guidance for law enforcement agencies receiving the report. It conveys little information other than the supposed need to monitor “right-wing” political groups. It certainly could move some official somewhere to questionable conduct, as it apparently already has.<\/p>\n

But is the report unconstitutional<\/em>? I hardly think so. Certainly the government can criticize certain groups and the mere possibility that this criticism might be followed by unconstitutional behavior can’t provide the basis for a constitutional claim. Shouldn’t there be more than words before relief is warranted?<\/p>\n

I think this case is DOA. But it prompts some broader musings. In a piece that is forthcoming in the William & Mary Bill of Rights<\/em> Journal<\/em>, I argue that, while we ought to abandon the endorsement test in Establishment Clause jurisprudence, there may nevertheless be some level of hostile government speech directed at a group of believers or nonbelievers that amounts to a constitutional violation. I offered as an historical example the Nazi policy of Gleichshaltung <\/em>which villified Jews as an adjunct to and in preparation for more coercive and directly repressive policies, including, eventually, extermination.<\/p>\n

That is, of course, an extreme example, but might some lesser form of state condemnation legitimately raise constitutional concerns? And might that same principle apply to government speech singling out groups and individuals on the basis of their speech and beliefs? I don’t believe that the DHS report comes close, but what of a concerted government effort to brand opponents to a war as unpatriotic and subversive and potentially traitorous? Can it rise — in the absence of any further action — to a violation of the First Amendment?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am not sure just what it is with the Thomas More Law Center, but since Ed Thompson left, they’ve done some strange things. First was a silly law suit challenging the TARP act because some of the recipients had shariah-compliant lending programs. Now, it has filed suit complaining that the Department of Homeland Security […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-first-amendment","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4786"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4786\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}