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Show TheSalt Lake Tribune OPINION Friday, January 29, 1999 ‘Thomas Deserves Recognition as Free-Speech Defender Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has been called every namein the book. He has been called a sexual harasser ever since his famed Senate ROBYN BLUMNER Because modern communication costs money,giving moneyin any amount to a political candidate should be viewed as protected by the First Amendment. Yet for the last 25 years the Supreme Court has ruled that, though candidates are free to spend without limit as a First Amendment right, the government can conscious legal remedies don’t comport with those of the vocal black community. And he has beencalled thecourt’sinvisible man, because he doesn't oftenparticST. PETERSBURGTIMES own opinions, he routinely joins the joining the court in 1990 has not been protective ofcivil liberties, but Thomas has been goodfor the First Amendment. The Supreme Court justice who rarely ars his throat to ask a question at oral ument has made his voice ciear and distinct in protecting freedom of speech. Most recently Thomas wrote that the court wasn’t sufficiently protecting free speech in the election context — a conern he has expressed in the past. ‘The case involves the state of Coloraio, which has beentryingto figure out for years how to stem the business of er initiatives. Like 24 other states, it put limits on who could participate in political exchanges. People who work forpolitical causes, such as the environ- ment or civil rights, shouldn't be precluded from collecting signatures on a petition simply because their activism earns them living So, Coloradotried again, this time requiring signature gatherers to wear a badgeidentifying themselves and whether they are paid or volunteer. Also, emPloyers of collectors were required to submit monthly reports to the state, and only Colerado’s registered voters could collect signatures. Just this month the Supreme Court again struck down the regulationsin the nameof the First Amendment. Thomas agreed with the majority's assessment that the rules burdened free speech by excluding some people — non-voters and those who are afraid to be identified — orado allowsits electorate to change the law through referendum. In anattempt to ensure widespread grass-roots petition drives. But Thomasalone would gnatures to be collected to get a mea- have gone further in shieldingpolitically active individuals from state attempts to support, the state requires nearly 63,000 sureon theballot. But, as commercefills any demand, professional signaturehering firms have cropped up to garthe needed numberfora price. Colo- from the opportunity to participate in control signature-collecting. He would have held the state law to thestrictest constitutionaltest. His ruling was reminiscent of another rado found these businesses noxious and Colorado election law case in 1996, passed a law makingit a felony to payfor signature collection. But the Supreme where Thomasagain stood alone in calling for expanded free speech protections. That time the issue was the right of urt struck that down in 1988 because While researching the subject of sovereignty last year, we were taken to some land beneath a highway overpass in San Diego, which almost 30 years ago had been designated asthe site of a California Highway Patrol station. The residents there objected and instead created Chicano Park, which is nowa repository restrict the amount each personcan give jpate in questioning attorneys during oral argumentand,ratherthan write his opinions of the court’s mad-dog conseryative Antonin Scalia. But there is one thing Thomas has notbeen called — a speech defender. Yet that moniker mayfit best. Much of what Thomas has donesince New Concepts of Sovereignty Replacing Invisible Borders a person to use his or her moneyto support a political candidate. face-off with Anita Hill during his con-firmation proceedings. He has been “called an “Uncle Tom,” because his views on affirmative action and race- to a campaign. Thomas has repeatedly said he would strike down this irrational difference. Thomas has been equally honest in challenging the court's treatment of commercial speech. The court grants less constitutional protection to commercial speech because it ostensibly has less communicative value than other forms of speech. Thomas points out that this is a fallacy. In a 1996 case invalidating a RhodeIsland restriction on advertising the prices of alcohol, Thomas wrote: “a particular Suppose a major corporation were t g a billion-dollar product launch sampling, except the Supreme Court has just ruled against it for purposes of apportioning seats in Congress. It is perfectly all right to use sampling-enhanced data for purposesofdividing upbillions ofdollars in federalaid to thestates, the en region: their incomes, assets, ea and employment. Naturally, the corporation would go to itest U.S. Census data, which is a { mine of such information. But what © companywere given the choice of ng oneof two sets of data — one de- rived solely by door-to-door interviews snd another improvedbyscientific sam- methods? would be a no-brainer. Since conional counting data missed 4 million varm, breathing Americans in the last ensus. any well-run corporation interested in making money would naturally se a census supplemented by sciensampling. vould here rest my case for scientific court said. But seats in our Congress must be divided up in the same waythey were in 1800, when there were only 5 million Americans to count and census takers rode mules It was a 5-4 ruling, an encouraging sign thatat least four-ninths of the court was prepared to enter the 21st century and conduct the 2000 census without their feet firmlyplantedin the scienceof the 18th. And while a majority of the demographicsprofession supports scien tific sampling, The Wall Street Journal wasable to dig up John Morgan, a “GOP demographer,” who applauded the court’s ruling on curious grounds. “What we're afraid of with the Clinton people is that they cheat,” he said. “If FREE Windshield! history of Chicano/Mexican people. Manypeoplewouldstill put their lives on the line todayif any governmentalentity tried to destroy the park or desecrate the murals. It is then and there where a new meaning of sovereignty crystallized to us. We asked Salvador Glass Act wi waiveup to $125.00 ile Service & Safety Inspec tion Call for Details. Salt Lake 533-8844 considered the park as sovereign space “I never thought about it. But yes. It’s consumer’s interest in the free flow of sovereign.” as, or keener than, his interest in the Nationally, there are similar spaces day’s mosturgentpolitical debate.” withsimilar histories, such as the Centro Thestate had argued that the prohibi- tion kept liquor stores from competing with each other and driving down the price. This, according to thestate, kept people from drinking alcohol. Thomas was the only member of the court to say state constitutionally keep people from information “for their own geod.” He wrotethat “all attempts to dissuade legal choicesbycitizens by keeping them ignorant are impermissible.” Thomas has been a much-maligned member of the court. His presence, espe- Glass Act vo/Orem Og: den Area | Proudly Serving Utah for Over 10 Years! 373-8726 392-1072 Utah’s Best Value in Bunks! Rumble Tuff Bunk Beds We tookthenoteto mean that manyof theattendees are part of a hemispheric While most of these spaces werecreated as a rcsult of injustices, and in some cases the loss of life, they all celebrate life. And each time we've visited such places, we've come awayfeeling that we have experienced sacred or sovereign sites, These past few months, we noticed the term sovereignty being tossed about during the attempt to put Chilean Gen. Au gusto “Senator for Life” Pinochet on an Uncle Tom — Uncle Tom Jefferson, that is. trial, and during the impeachmentpro- ceedings in Washington D.C. As such we've continued exploring what sovereignty means, who definesit, who doles it out, and whoasserts it they just sampledand it wasaccurate, it wouldn't be of great consequence. But you can’t trust them.” Yes, and since there is a tunnel from Most people are used to hearing the term associated with nations, as in the “sovereign right” of the United Statesto unilaterally bomb Iraq. For some Chil the White Houseleadingto the Treasury next door, I suppose President and Mrs and loot the vaults. Bythis stretch, those dreadful Clintons could persuade thecivil servants in the Census Bureau to cook the census books, to use samplingto slip millions of nonexistent inner-city liberals into the count and perhaps give the House of Representatives to the Democrats. Bythis reasoning, even without scientific sampling, Bill and Hillary could just as easily sneak over to the Census Bureau and shred millions of formsfilled cuted byother countries Moral arguments aside, in the many battles over Indian gaming, the sover- eign right of tribes to economic develop- menthas been called into question as has their right to “sovereign immunity” or the right not to be sued. Wenote that sovereignty doesn't seem to have a single meaning or one appli tion. In our work, we've also comeacros the concepts of ancestral, cultural, peo- ple’s and individual sovereignty. We've that the census will be conducted by spacealiens? also been examining sovereignty within the context of “globalism,” attempting [AIR DUCT CLEANING WholeHouse Package, | thesanctity of modern nation-state borTheidea of Native — and Mexican — Americanscreating a shared consciousness may sound radical, but it is the world’s global economyitself that has begunto radically alter not simply humanrelations, but people's views ofnation-states. For example, the conflict between the Zapatista rebels and family In the next few years, the meaning of scvereignty will be further examined The European community is already each other's countries, and most now Asidefrom spaceexploration andnat- ural disasters, nothing will contribute more to such a re-examinationthanpropo: such astiie multibillion-dollar ef- fort by the Clinton administration to re- vive former president Reagan's “Star Wars” defense program. | | We Will Not ioeog the needs of mostof the world’s population still go unmet Such prioritization, we believe, will cause people worldwideto emulatecorporations by redefining the meaning of sovereignty itself and by increasingly carving out sovereign spaces, irrespective of unseen borders. NOW is the TIME cat Duct Pros 355-8719 ze = Payments Pee Cinderela FULL YEAR Cinderella/ ifecycle the #1 bike in the (9 models to choose from) Spring Collage Sift packages also available! Call 323-6966 ~ If the Shoe Fits... 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THE ARCHIE the Mexican government in Chiapas, precipitated by NAFTA, is one example of how these two groups have cometo see themselves as part of the same indigenous This is the Final Week to take advantage Putit on and cometotheballet! aresseT ment musttrouble those who believe in ders. share a common currency has been used in And while we'reatit, why not worry \ : hese punks/7 SUSEReplace & ‘ayjr“JourKEEPer crib ant = indigenous consciousness that transcends borders. No doubt, this develop- “sovereign immunity” relation to the right of “sovereigns.” or outby peoplein heavily Republican con- Borders. What borders? Wedidn't see no stinking borders eans, Pinochet's caseis an insult to their (former) heads of state, not to be prose: gressional districts. Michigan University, a Native-American participant passed us a note that read: showing us how sovereignty is changing: people there have theright to migrateto nation’s sovereignty, whereas the term Clinton might go over there one night At a recent symposium regarding the creationof a joint Xicano/Native-Amer- were founded by people who believed needsofthe residents. ence, inspires more jeers than cheers. Buthe should be applaudedfor his courageousandhighly principled stance on the First Amendment. Here, hetruly is porations freely cross borders in their pursuit of maximizingtheir profits. ican studies department at Eastern that government was not meeting the cially before an African-American audi- to understand what sovereignty and citizenship means when transnational cor- de la Razain Seattle, Escuela Tlatelolco in Denver, Clinica La Fe in El Paso, Texas, Escuela de la Raza in Blythe, Calif. and also the Xicano Development Center in Detroit. All these spaces — from schools to humanrights organizations — that under nocircumstances could the r— UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE “Queso” Torres, an artist associated with the park sinceits inception, if he commercial information may be as keen Save up to $125.00* ROBERTO RODRIGUEZ PATRISIA GONZALES of rich muralsthatdepict the indigenous A Sampling of Paranoid Delusions About the Census BY ROBERTRE! NEWSDAY All Prat A Rc en |
