Rees Lloyd: Freedom of Speech Stems From the First Amendment, Not from Sam Adams

November 10, 2011

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As a civil rights and First Amendment constitutional lawyer practicing in California for some thirty years, it concerns me greatly to hear Portland Mayor Sam Adams  repeatedly and self-righteously state that he has failed to enforce the laws on the use of public parks against the Portland Occupiers because he is balancing the “right of freedom of speech” and public safety. It is a matter of equal concern that the news media repeatedly reports Sam Adams’ statements concerning “freedom of speech” as it there is constitutional validity to Adams’ assertions. There is not.

Concisely stated: When citizens and other persons willfully refuse to comply with constitutionally constructed time, place, and manner restrictions on freedom of speech, including in the particular compliance with permit requirements, they forfeit their First Amendment freedoms of speech.

The Portland Occupiers willfully and arrogantly announced in advance that they would refuse even to seek a permit and would otherwise act in knowing and willful violation of rules, regulations, and ordinances pertaining to the use of public parks. In doing so, they forfeited “freedom of speech” rights under the First Amendment. 

At no time since they squatted illegally in the public parks, or since they took over the streets sans permit and denied those streets to citizens — acting in the manner of  first the communists then Hitler’s “Brown Shirt” fascists in Germany leading to Hitler’s anti-capitalist National Socialist Workers Party (NAZI) taking power in 1933 —  have the Portland Occupiers claimed that they failed to comply with Portland’s permit and park regulations because they are unconstitutional in violation of the First Amendment. On the contrary, the Portland Occupiers simply and arrogantly refused to obey them. Period. There is no honor in that, nor integrity, nor “right” so to act bestowed by the First Amendment.

The essence of  “civil disobedience” is to deliberately disobey rules, regulations, or laws in  a good faith belief that they are unjust, illegal, or unconstitutional — and on condition of  being willing to accept the consequences, i.e., the penalties and punishments, resulting from that disobedience. This has been true since the doctrine was first expressed comprehensively in written form by the American philosopher Henry David Thoreau in his “Theory of Civil Disobedience.” It has remained true  when that theory has been put in practice in our era in the Civil Rights Movement as led by Martin Luther King, and the farmworkers workers rights movement as led by Cesar Chavez, who was the moral heart of the American Labor Movement until his death on April 23, 1993.

It has to be remembered, even by Sam Adams, that the right of free speech stems not from him but  from the First Amendment. Further, that First Amendment “right” must be equally, not selectively and discriminatorily applied. At his press conference, Sam Adams made clear that the Portland Occupiers share Sam Adams’ political preference; indeed, he said he believes that they can grow and lead the nation. Thus, he has provided the evidence as to why the Portland Occupiers have been discriminatorily preferred over all other citizens, who have been denied the same “rights” Sam Adams has gifted upon the Portland Occupiers.

I was active in the Civil Rights Movement after service in the Army, and I was one of Cesar Chavez’ attorneys for some twenty years. In those movements, creative, non-violent civil disobedience was used because the laws restricting acts were not constitutional time, place, and manner restrictions but unjust  measures designed to unconstitutionally violate free speech rights. Cesar and  his members violated those unjust laws; accepted their arrests and jailing; and we fought the unconstitutional measures in court. There is honor to that, and integrity, i.e., being willing to accept the consequences.

The Portland Occupiers, they who sent white roses to Mayor Sam Adams for his alleged “defense of free speech,” not only have received special treatment of having Adams refuse to equally apply the law to them, they have whined that the police have not come into the parks to enforce the laws against others who have come into the park: “Do unto others what I don’t want you to do unto me.” They appear oblivious of their own arrogance. They degrade and disgrace what was done by Americans in the civil rights movement as led by Martin Luther King, and the labor rights movement as led by Cesar Chavez, both of whom were inspired by and followed the civil disobedience tenets and tactics of Mahatma Gandhi in India, who himself said he was inspired by and followed the civil disobedience principles of the American Henry David Thoreau.

John F. Kennedy famously said as to rights: “The rights of man come not from a generous government but from the hand of God.” While Kennedy would be run out of the contemporary Democrat Party for saying that today, his words remain true. As for freedom of speech, that right comes from the First Amendment to the Constitution, not from Sam Adams or any other politician.

[Rees Lloyd is a longtime California civil rights and constitutional lawyer who currently resides in Portland.]

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