Free Speech at a price

[d0pp]

I just saw this on the news... Apparently, Pasco County, Florida has been sued by the ACLU. Pasco COunty has special free speech areas where civic organizations (churches and whatnot) can erect displays on public land. The only stipulation for this is liability insurace, and approval from one of the city attorneys. A church that wanted to erect a nativity scene had to have liability insurance in case anyone was injusred or the display damaged anything.

The ACLU says this is unconstitutional because it essentially means paying for free speech.

My opinion is that the ACLU is a bunch of whiny bitches who have lost their purpose and vision over the last few years. Liability insurance is not a bad idea since it keeps the county from having to foot the bill for stupid people.

[nihil]

What a shower of tossers,

So they hire an aeroplane with a banner "free speech for morons".............do you think it would get off the deck without insurance?

[JewishIntent]

I dont see why they are bitching, this is probably one of the better ideas the government has come up with in a while. Like you said d0pp insurance is a good thing especially when free speech can constitute demonstrations and rallies and we all know how many stupid people like to show up to those.

[d0pp]

It is not the governments duty to protect stupid people from themselves, but rather to protect the rest of us from them.

[rcgreen]

Let me get this straight. If I get together with some friends and want to pray
in public, the ACLU will shut us down for separation of church and state.
If we pray to Hitler, that's OK, because that's freedom of speech. The ACLU
will insert a lame disclaimer saying that what we are doing is evil and wrong
but they will defend us anyway.

If we have a rally to support Bush and "our troops", they will sue to stop
us because that violates "campaign finance reform", but only if it is
within two months of an election.

If we get together to protest "globalization" and burn down the office
of some evil corporation, that's a legitimate expression of "third world angst"

If we have a concert, and smoke some dope...

[dalek]

It seems like the ACLU has gotten spread so thin, that it sees conspiracies to usurp your freedoms everywhere, to the point where common sense is no longer a matter of course, maybe they should go to that same concert and smoke some of that dope.

It's also unfortunate that society in the western world has become so litigious (I spilled some "Hot Coffee" on myself and it's your fault, I am suing.....syndrome).

The insurance required is mostly to PYB from such litigation, i.e. the drunk fell into the nativity scene which caused the lights to short out thus burning down the display, which in turn injured said alderman's toupee.

Everyone is so worried about being on the wrong end of a lawsuit nowadays, that the joy in some things has gone out the window.

You have a house party, one of your dickhead friends decide's he is going to jump off of the roof and into your pool, only he misses and breaks his leg, right he is suing you, because you should have known when to take his soother away from him, and ensured that the roof had no access for drunks.

Drowns while fleeing cops, family sues for $50M

New Jersey: "A $50 million lawsuit is being filed against Hoboken and its police department by the parents of a 16-year-old boy who drowned in the Hudson River shortly after escaping from Hoboken Police Headquarters." On Oct. 5, 2004 Vincent "Woody" McConnell Jr. was arrested on an outstanding warrant and on being taken in asked if he could use the public rest room at the station house. According to police, he then unscrewed the security grate on the small window in the rest room and escaped; with cops in pursuit, he climbed a railing, "escaped from an officer holding his arm and jumped into the water," which has dangerous currents at that point in the river. Friends of McConnell say they don't believe he would have jumped. He's being represented by attorney Robert Bianchi. (Michelangelo Conte, "Suit Blames Cops", Jersey Journal, Oct. 12).

"Man Sues Online Dating Service After Being Rejected"

"Soheil Davood claims his paid subscription to JDate.com, billed as 'the world's largest Jewish singles community,' guaranteed that he would find 'high-quality, successful Jewish personals without wasting precious time.'" However, he claims that "SuperFriendlyGal" didn't turn out to live up to her name, and (he alleges) after some initially enticing chat dumped him harshly. "Davood, who is seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages, claims the Web site is 'defective' because it was poorly designed and monitored, which exposed him to 'serious psychological injury.'" (NBC4.TV, Sept. 20)(via Jeff Lewis).

seriously folks......

[MURACU]

Unfortunatly the problem with the ACLU is that for them no publicity is bad publicity. Which if we take one step further means that there is no such thing as bad publicity. What is important for them is that at the end of the year their reports can say we defended X number of civil liberties cases, X number of racial discrimination cases, x number of ....... They know that the public will swallow whatever crap is being pumped at them by the media and then forget it the next day. The only thing that will be remembered is that the ACLU was in the news a lot defending the minority cases.

[nihil]

Actually, this is where they have gotten it wrong?

The ACLU says this is unconstitutional because it essentially means paying for free speech.

The payment is not for WHAT you say ...............it is for using the facility? Like if you hired a football stadium or a theatre, that would be insured? Hell! I even have $3.4M public liability in case my house falls on someone's head

Over here, if I hired out a field, I would have PL insurance...............as these are lands under the control of the local government, they have a similar responsibility.

If the ACLU really believe in what they are saying, they should offer to pay? After all. why should local taxpayers be expected to foot the bill?

I think that they have lost the plot on this one............over here if I want to erect scaffolding I need a license and insurance, an advertising hoarding, the same..........even the vicarage garden party is insured?

[Tedob1]

for aclu attorneys winning a high profile case can almost insure them a cushy job as a corporate attorney. for them its win or loose not right and wrong. they don't care that their screwing up the country. just find a loophole, cause a stink...hey it looks great in the portfolio! if one of them could sue the christians for deformation of character on behalf of satanists and win they could name their pay.