Posted by
Grampus on Wednesday, September 27, 2006 2:29:12 PM
A glaring example of what we have to suffer from all the "double standards" liberal court appointees from the disaster of the Clinton years in the White House.
9TH Circuit - Wrong Way Court
by Terence P. Jeffrey
Posted Sep 27, 2006
The San Francisco-based U.S. Court of appeals for the 9th Circuit has strangely shifting views on freedom of expression. It seems to depend on who expresses what.
In 1999, for example, the court declared “virtual” child pornography a “right.” “The 1st
Amendment,” it said, “prohibits Congress from enacting a statute that makes criminal the generation of fictitious children engaged in imaginary but explicit sexual conduct.”
Last October, however, the court took a far more cramped view of free speech. The murder conviction of Mathew Musladin must be thrown out, it ruled, because the victim's family sat in the front row of the trial, wearing buttons depicting nothing more than the victim's photograph.
This mute expression, the judges ruled, may have prejudiced the jury and thus violated Musladin’s right to a fair trial. In October, the Supreme Court will hear an appeal.
One wonders how the 9th Circuit might have ruled had the victim’s family worn “virtual” child pornography instead of a photo of their slain loved one?
Grampus