First Amendment rights in jeopardy: Parade April 15

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Two Carroll County citizens, Owen Kendrick and Kent Crow, are concerned about the erosion of First Amendment protections under the current federal and state administrations. To draw attention to the issues, they are helping organize a First Amendment Parade scheduled for 2 p.m. Saturday, April 15.

“The current climate politically suggests that this is an important time to make people aware of their First Amendment freedoms,” Kendrick said.

The First Amendment states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

Kendrick said the attacks on the press by the Trump Administration have been appalling, including preventing access to press conferences by members of the media who have published articles critical of Trump.

“If I have the ability to pick and choose who is going to talk about me, then I have the ability to effectively edit what is going to be said,” Kendrick said. “The current administration is also attempting to label falsehoods as ‘alternative facts.’ And it is labeling certain bits of news as being fake news. It seems that anything the administration doesn’t like is fake news.”

On the state level there is legislation proposed to curtail the Freedom of Information Act regulations in place to allow access to government records. And there is a bill introduced in the Arkansas House seeking to criminalize protests. A number of other states have introduced similar legislation.

The Arkansas House bill would make it a misdemeanor to block a roadway, sidewalk or business. Kendrick said the legislation arguably would violate the First Amendment that protects rights to peacefully assemble and petition the government for redress.

“After all, mass protests are how we ended the Vietnam War,” Kendrick said. “That is how we handled the Occupy Wall Street protests several years ago. The First Amendment also embraces freedom of religion and freedom from religion. Certainly we are seeing efforts to legislate certain religious beliefs.”

            Kendrick said the issue is so important because of the striking parallels between what is being done today and the climate of the country in the early 1930s.

“That era produced Hitler, Mussolini, and Francisco Franco,” Kendrick said. “In the U.S., there was a major presidential candidate with similar fascist leanings, Huey P. Long. Had he not been assassinated, Long might have defeated Franklin Roosevelt. I’m looking at the country through that lens and seeing frightening similarities.”

Eureka Springs has ties to Long. Evangelist Gerald L.K. Smith, who was been called the Minister of Hate by his biographer, was Long’s Billy Graham.

“When Long was assassinated, Smith had to leave Louisiana and he came up here where he established the Passion Play,” Kendrick said. “Smith was a notorious anti-Semitic, Nazi sympathizer who was an isolationist.”

Kent Crow, a Berryville attorney, said that many people probably don’t realize that the U.S. isn’t as free as some people think.

“Internationally, the U.S. is now ranked 46th in the world in freedom of press,” Crow said. “We are just ahead of Nigeria. That goes with a lot of other rankings we have in the world including being 25th in math and science. Obviously, we are not doing something as well as others countries are when it comes one of the most important fundamental rights in our country, protected under the Constitution and the First Amendment. I think we need to be more aware of and understand that the press and media are under attack.”

Kendrick and Crow were concerned about the issue prior to the election of Trump.

“I think it has become more important after the election of Donald Trump and his depiction of the press as being an enemy of the people,” Crow said. “It is incumbent upon all of us to be not only be aware of our freedoms, but also that we promote an understanding of the responsibility of citizens to maintain and protect those freedoms.”

Another concern is the establishment clause that Congress shall make no law respecting religion.

“In addition to recognizing the right to one’s religious practice, we must recognize the rights of people of religions and all beliefs, and the right of people to practice that fundamental right without any retributions,” Crow said. “Currently we are seeing Jewish communities subjected to a great many threats and forms of intimidation, including vandalism of cemeteries and synagogues. That should be really, really disturbing to all of us. All of us who believe in the First Amendment need to take a stand to express our support of all religions.”

As part of the parade April 15, people of all different denominations have been invited to participate. And the parade itself will be an application of the right to peaceably assemble. Like Kendrick, Crow is concerned about efforts in the legislature to make protesting in the street a crime.

“All of us need to be very critical of what the legislature is trying to do,” Crow said. “I find that a little disturbing. My opinion is we are seeing legislatures around the country engaging in some rather unusual attempts to limit or restrict constitutional rights. Mississippi, Louisiana and Tennessee, all over the course of the past two years, attempted to pass laws making the St. James Bible the official book of the state. Those efforts were not successful because they were a violation of the establishment clause of the First Amendment. The Arkansas Legislature thinks it has done a clever end run around that issue by passing a resolution – instead of a law – that the Bible will be book of Arkansas.”

Crow has faith that the Constitution and the U.S. court system will provide protection against the U.S. becoming a fascist state.

“The legislative, judicial and executive branches are all equal under the law,” Crow said. “The court system is designed to keep the legislative and executive branches from over-reaching when it comes to Constitutional rights. But the judiciary itself is under attack by the Trump Administration. He doesn’t believe it is equal from comments he has made. It is a disturbing thing for the president of the U.S. to advocate.”

There is also a proposed amendment to the Arkansas Constitution that would allow the legislature to write rules for the judiciary. Crow likens that to asking your car mechanic to perform open heart surgery.

“If you can write procedures for the court to follow, essentially what you can do is legislate the outcome of litigation,” Crow said. “I don’t think the judicial system is without flaws. A lot of things need to be fixed. But trying to tell the court system they can’t write their own rules is not the way to do it. We need to address real problems like paucity of public defenders and make sure everyone has adequate legal representation.”

Virginia Voiers will be the grand marshal of the April 15 First Amendment Parade, and Nancy Paddock is the organizer. For more information, email nlpaddock@gmail.com or call (479) 244-0123. To participate, meet up at the library at 1 p.m. The parade will follow Spring Street to the courthouse.

1 COMMENT

  1. I find it interesting that the City of Eureka Springs cancelled an agreement with the Ministerial Ass’n to have the “Jesus Parade” on Easter weekend to allow a pure political and biased parade by a couple of lawyers to occur. I guess I know where the city and lawyers stand.

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