"Put Colloquially, American Law Believes That Talking Out Prevents Acting Out." A First Amendment Primer

David D. Butler, David D.Butler, PLC, Lawyer

Abstract

"Put Colloquially, American Law Believes that Talking Out Prevents Acting Out:" A Free Speech Primer argues that the Federal First Amendment, textually against Congress,and as incorporated by reference against the Several States, states a preference for (1) sanctioning harmful speech or expression in civil proceedings (2) rather than penalizing the speaker or actor in criminal prosecutions.

The essay argues that whether in the 1988 theft of an unflattering painting of Chicago Mayor Harold Washington, titled "Mirth and Girth," by three Chicago aldermen from the Chicago Art Institute ranging to then president Clinton's perjury regarding his earlier sexual abuse of an Arkansas state employee, [Paula Corbin] Jones versus [William Jefferson] Clinton, 36 F.Supp. 2d 1118 (E.D.Ark., 1999), American law prefers not to criminalize offensive speech or rude expressive conduct.

The essay concedes that several well-worn exceptions exist to this bias not to prosecute rude, crude, and highly unattractive conduct: (1) Fraud: (2) National defense, and: (3) Sexual speech or expressive conduct to or about minor children, even fictive minor children in comic books.

The essay questions whether an additional exception now exists in the case of a public burning of the Saudi or other Islamic country's flag. These banners typically include the color green, the heraldic color of Muhammad and his descendants, as well as the Arabic writing, "There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his Prophet." This essay predicts a conflict - a cloud much bigger than a man's hand - looming on the horizon between the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and Muslim Sharia Law.

The essay concludes amazed that the West is so mesmerized by its own locution "One Man, One Vote," in the mouths of satraps and kings whose women and men have no vote. The essay ends with the ultimate authority of Christ's last three words, spoken on the cross, "It is finished."