Censorship
Political Cartoonist Paul Conrad Dies
Legendary political cartoonist Paul Conrad, who skewered the powerful and fought against censorship, died on September 4 in Los Angeles at the age of 86.
Conrad, who said he was “most proud of being on Nixon’s enemies list,” won three Pulitzer Prizes during the course of his half-century career, including 30 years at the Los Angeles Times. He used his agile pen and his deft sense of humor to denounce presidents, governors and others he saw abusing power.
Conrad is featured in Wherever There’s a Fight because of his advocacy of freedom of the press. In 1968, one of his cartoons (above) angered then-Mayor of Los Angeles Sam Yorty, who filed a $2 million libel suit against the paper.
In an amicus brief on behalf of Conrad, ACLU of Southern California attorneys Al Wirin and Fred Okrand stated, “if Mayor Yorty is permitted to prosecute …or recovers damages, it will have a considerable inhibiting effect on what to many is the main purpose of the First Amendment: the right of, and the need for, the public to know and be informed in order that there may be true democratic government.”
In 1970, Conrad was vindicated when a judge ruled that penalizing the defendants would “subvert the most fundamental meaning of a free press.”
In a PBS documentary on Conrad, Tom Brokaw said, “Every line he draws cries out to the powers that be, ‘We’re watching you!’”
City Lights Reading
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Listen to a podcast from historic City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco, where Elaine Elinson and Stan Yogi read from Wherever There's a Fight.
Fighting Censorship: From School Libraries to Symphony Halls
Attempts to censor books, films, and live performances are perennial. In the latter part of the 20th century, prize-winning books, ethnic dance performers, and a gay men's chorus were just some of the targets of censorship in California.
California Supreme Court Rules Cities Can Ban Airport Solicitations
The state Supreme Court on March 25 upheld a 1997 Los Angeles ordinance that prohibits the solicitation of money at Los Angeles International Airport's terminals, parking lots, and sidewalks. Justice Carlos Moreno, writing for the court, said that panhandling was "far more intrusive" than leafleting and other forms of Constitutionally-potected speech. He added that travelers are frequently in a rush and that airports are often crowded. Solicitations could increase congestion, the court reasoned, resulting in travelers missing their flights or exposing visitors to potential intimidation and fraud.
State Supreme Court Refuses to Hear Free Speech Case
The California Supreme Court declined to hear the appeal of owners of the Galleria Mall in Roseville, east of Sacramento, who challenged an appellate court ruling allowing speech at the shopping center unrelated to retail business.
In 2006, mall security officers arrested Matthew Snatchko for talking with three teenagers about his religious beliefs, in violation of the mall's policy of requiring a permit for speech or activities unrelated to the mall or one of its stores.
Snatchko lost an initial lawsuit, but on appeal Third District Court of Appeal unanimously ruled that the mall's permit requirement violated free speech rights.
The appellate court decision was written by Tani Cantil-Sakauye, Governor Schwarzenegger's nominee to replace retiring state supreme court Chief Justice Ronald George.
In 1979, the state supreme court issued a landmark free speech ruling that owners of a shopping mall in the Silicon Valley could not bar political activists from distributing leaflets at the mall.
The day after the high court refused to take up the Galleria mall lawsuit, a man barricaded himself inside a store in the Galleria and started a fire, which spread and resulted in extensive damage.
KQED Forum: California, 'Wherever There's a Fight'
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Host Michael Krasny talks with Elaine Elinson and Stan Yogi about the many unsung heroes of California's past profiled in their book.
Free Speech in Shopping Malls: Pruneyard v. Robins
High school students who were barred in 1975 from distributing a political petition at a Silicon Valley shopping mall fought for their free speech rights. Their case went all the way to the United States Supreme Court.
U.S. Supreme Bans Advising Terror Groups on Peaceful Conflict Resolution
In its first ruling since 9/11 in a national security case dealing with restrictions on free speech, the United States Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that the government can criminally prosecute anyone who advises a group that the State Department has designated a terrorist organization, even if the advice deals with peaceful conflict resolution.
Writing for the court's majority, Chief Justice John Roberts said that the law does not violate the First Amendment's guarantee of freedom of speech. He justified the ban on advising terror groups because such action “frees up other resources within the organization that may be put to violent ends,” and “helps lend legitimacy to foreign terrorist groups.”
In dissent, Justice Stephen Breyer, joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor, wrote that the court's majority was incorrect in failing "to insist upon specific evidence, rather than general assertion" that national securitiy trumped the speech in question. Bryer added that “this speech and association for political purposes is the kind of activity to which the First Amendment ordinarily offers its strongest protection.”
The dissenting Justices proposed a narrower interpretation of the law: individuals should not be prosecuted unless they intentionally provided advice or service that they had reason to believe would further violence.
One of the plaintiffs, USC professor of social work Ralph Fertig, is President of the Humanitarian Law Project, a Los Angeles-based human rights organization that promotes peaceful conflict resolution through the use of international human rights laws. Fertig opposes violence and said his advocacy on behalf of the Kurdsish minority in Turkey could be interpreted as a violation of the law because some of the individuals with whom the Humanitarian Law Project worked might be members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (known as the PKK), which the State Department considers a terrorist organization.
Commenting on the decision, Fertig stated, "This is a very dark day … but we will not let this inhibit our commitment to the Kurdish people. We will continue to advocate for the rights of the Kurds who are being oppressed. We do so with great fear that some of the people we are working with might be members of the PKK."
The clash in this case between the anti-terrorism law and free speech rights echoes prior conflicts. In 1919, California and other states passed "criminal syndicalism" laws which created the felony of promoting "any doctine or precept advocating. . .unlawful acts or force and violence. . .as a means of accomplishing a change in industrial ownership or control, or effecting any political change." The law became a tool to squelch the free speech rights of union organizers, strikers, and political dissidents. In 1923, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Upton Sinclair was arrested in San Pedro for reading the U.S. Constitution at a rally in support of striking dockworkers.
Transit Agency Criticized for Cutting Cell Phone Service
Officials at the Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BART), a San Francisco Bay Area train system, drew fire for shutting down cell phone service on all trains and stations in San Francisco for several hours on August 11 to prevent protestors from staging a demonstration.
Critics lambasted BART for violating protestors' First Amendment right to free expression and compared BART to the repressive regime of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who tried to turn off communicaiton channels to end political protests that eventually resulted in his ouster.
BART countered that its actions were necessary to protect passengers' safety.
By shutting down cell phone service, BART officials hoped to avert a demonstration like one that took place on July 11 to protest the shooting by a BART police officer of a Charles Hill, a homeless man.
Source: The Bay Citizen (http://s.tt/131rw)
Source: The Bay Citizen (http://s.tt/131rw)
Source: The Bay Citizen (http://s.tt/131rw)
[Chapter 07] Mightier Than the Sword: The Right to Free Expression
Soon after John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath was published in 1939, farmers and politicians in Kern County, the region depicted in the classic novel, tried to ban the book from local libraries.
