Stalinism (or new McCarthyism?)

[Michael Trittipo]

 >> Is it free speech when there is
 >> nowhere from which to speak?
 >> Where must the line be drawn?

Well, answering the second question first, the place the 1st Amendment in
the U.S. draws the line is at the federal government.  The 1st Amendment
bars certain actions by the federal government (and, via the 14th
amendment, by state governments).  The first question might be better
considered from a standpoint of media law, employment law, or corporations
law -- all of which seem beyond Seelangs' usual scope.

Staying with constitutional law, though, and comparative Slavic law, one
feature of the Ustava Ceske Republiky, specifically the Listina zakladnich
prav a svobod, is that the right of expression is listed among Oddil 2's
merely political rights, *not* among Oddil 1's basic human rights or
freedoms.  For a while, it was an open question in the U.S. whether the 1st
Amendment protected only political speech, or all kinds of speech.  To the
extent that organization and headings have meaning, that's not an open
question in the CR.

Oddil druhy
Politicka prava
Clanek 17
(1) Svoboda projevu . . . [je] zarucen[a].
. . . (4) Svobodu projevu . . .  lze omezit zakonem . . ..
Clanek 18
(1) Peticni pravo je zaruceno  . . .
Clanek 19
(1) Pravo pokojne se shromazdovat je zaruceno.
(2) Toto pravo lze omezit zakonem . . ..
Clanek 20
(1) Pravo svobodne se sdruzovat je zaruceno.  . . .
(3) Vykon techto prav lze omezit . . ..

Perhaps some law-as-literature people or Slavic historians who have studied
the question could comment on the stylistic (?) decision to not say in the
Listina itself zarucena against whom or what, or on the separate decision
to explicitly say in the Listina that the government may, in various cases,
limit the listed rights.  I note it as an oddity, but I haven't read the
history of the drafting nor studied decisions in concrete disputes since
adoption that might rely on these stylistic (substantive?) decisions in
their rationale.

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