Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Today in Judiciary Committee we voted on S.J. Res. 19: a constitutional amendment that would give Congress power to curtail Americans' First Amendment right to free speech

Today in Judiciary Committee we voted on S.J. Res. 19: a constitutional amendment that would give Congress power to curtail Americans' First Amendment right to free speech.
It doesn’t take a complicated constitutional exposition to see what this proposed amendment is really about: power…giving it to sitting Members of Congress and taking it away from the American people, including, not coincidentally, any potential candidate that might like to challenge a sitting Member of Congress.
As we have seen in the unfolding scandal at the IRS, there is a permanent temptation facing those in power to muzzle dissent and a permanent inclination to deceive oneself into thinking that such a temptation does not exist.
This is precisely why we have a written Constitution that checks those in authority and prevents the kind of proposal I voted against today.

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