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Glen
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8 months ago
in Express yourself? Not on your life! (yet another 1st amendment post) on mrontemp
I'm not sure I follow your reasoning. The Constitution and the amendments apply to citizens, not to organizations. Citizens have the right peaceably to assemble; if there are American members of al Qaeda, then they have the right to assemble. That does not give them the right to break other laws, however. As far as the issue of "religious clubs" in schools goes, that's where the mutually exclusive "free exercise" of religion conflicts with the government "shall not establish" religion. And it's notable that the schools themselves have made different choices: some school districts allow student organizations of any faith, whereas others prohibit any religious organizations at all.
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You are correct in noting that citizens have the right to peaceably to assemble, but there are those who would deny citizens that right - we can't give Nazi citizens a permit to march in Skokie, we can't let Muslims do this or that (e.g., pray; there are those that think that a Muslim prayer should result in a terrorism detainment), we can't let an Alaskan Independence Party member run for Vice President (and yes, people wanted McCain to take Palin off the ticket because of that).
If a group of persons decides to assemble for a particular purpose, and that purpose is on government property, does that necessarily mean that this is a government-sponsored event? Now I'll grant that issues may arise if the government FUNDS the activity (e.g. Bush's proposals to provide funding to what he euphemistically calls "faith based organizations"), but the right to assemble on school grounds should not be infringed, in my view.