The words painted on the side of the house are offensive – but if a homeowner does not have the right to engage in free speech (as undeniably reprehensible as it is) on his own property, does the First Amendment mean anything anymore? That is my question for columnist Carol McAlice Currie.

The words "Go to F...... Hell Jew Bastard" drip in 3-foot-high letters along the side of a house in northeast Salem. Neighbors and passers-by can't miss the message any time they drive west along the rural road.

But getting Marion County to order the owner to paint over it is proving a chore because, despite its vulgar and violent message, it's protected free speech.
Well, here's some more free speech: Horse manure!

While county officials sit around considering their options, the sideshow gets more attention daily.

The county's legal eagles are correct about the First Amendment. Because there's a possibility that Chadwick Michaels himself wrote the words on his home at 4063 Hayesville Road NE (he refuses to say), they're protected free speech. As intolerant and offensive as they are, they apparently don't meet legal tests for presenting an "immediate and imminent danger."

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As a journalist, the First Amendment is sacred to me. I don't take suppressing it well. So I accept that as miserable a message as it is, it's Michaels' right to say it.

Michaels is not shouting "fire" in a movie theater, so he shouldn't be muzzled. But he is advertising hatred on a big, two-story brown sign in a residential neighborhood of farms and fields.

Surely we can regulate that without trampling on the Bill of Rights.

Notice the hypocrisy, please. She acknowledges the theoretical right to speak – but demands censorship anyway. How liberal of her.

WARNING! PICTURE OF HOUSE BELOW FOLD.

Posted by: Greg at 11:33 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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