Freedom of Speech Art in Cville

[dream2k2]

So I heard on the news today that they put up a Freedom of Speech Wall or something up in Downtown Cville. It's like a big chalk board. The boards get erased every Thursday. In the meantime, anyone can write whatever they want up on the board. Here's the catch...anyone can erase anyone else's words on the board whenever they want. The controversy

Comments

[grovermonster]

Yes, that is true. The Bill of Rights only protects people from government action against them. Originally, it only protected people from federal government action, but after the 14th amendment the court applied it to state government actors as well.
The thing is that that protection might encompass more than you think. For instance, a teacher at a publically funded government school? Government actor. (Although I suspect that the Supreme Court has crafted slightly different rules for public schools as they allow a more extensive search in schools under the 4th amendment than they would outside of schools because they say schools have "special needs.")

So anyway, any time you think there's been a violation of the 1st amendment, the first thing you need to establish is that the person forbidden the speech can be construed as a government actor.

[grovermonster]

forbidding*

[blorpz]

ooo you remind me of Matlock, very sexy