… A parade is not a speech, it is only a spectacle. …
I don’t believe this is true.
In
Hurley v. Irish-American Gay, Lesbian & Bisexual Group of Boston, the Gay, Lesbian & Bisexual Group sought to be included in the Irish-American St. Patrick’s day Parade.
gis.net/~paul/#What%20the%20Supreme
law.cornell.edu/supct/html/94-749.ZO.html
Quote:
The issues in this case were clear:
(1) Whether the state could compel private citizens to include in their traditionally-themed parade, a protected class (gay, lesbian, and bisexuals) marching behind a banner proclaiming their sexual orientation. Repeatedly, the state courts held that the state’s public accommodation law, prohibiting discrimination in a place of public accommodation, a public street, applied to the Veterans’ annual parade which the Veterans viewed as their speech; and
(2) Whether the Veterans’ refusal to comply could be prosecuted under a Massachusetts penal statute. The state courts said it could.
What the Supreme Court ruled:
The United States Supreme Court, in a rare
9-0 decision, ruled that parades are protected under the First Amendment, and as such, the state could not compel organizers to include groups with messages the organizers disfavored. Justice Souter, writing for the Court, noted, “The state court’s application [of the public accommodation law] however, had the effect of declaring the sponsor’s speech itself to be the public accommodation.”
“Under the free speech guarantees of the Federal Constitution’s First Amendment, (1) the law is not free to interfere with speech for no better reason than promoting an approved message or discouraging a disfavored one, however enlightened either purpose may strike the government, and (2) disapproval of a private speaker’s statement does not legitimize use of the government’s power to compel the speaker to alter the message by including one more acceptable to others.”
Unquote.
:sad_yes:
