EMNofSeattle
Regular Member
So today was the final day of Olympic College (a community college I attend in Bremerton, Washington)'s "First Amendment Forum" This is slightly off topic, but still relevant to us (IMHO) and is somewhat state specific.
Scroll down to the final paragraph if you want to skip the background and go straight to the point, but I encourage you to read the whole deal.
Basically in 2007 an anti-abortion group showed up on OC's main campus in Bremerton, they carry these signs with graphic anti abortion images and messages (I'll inbed one here *Warning, Graphic* well this caused quite a stir on campus, and led to the campus severely restricting free speech, however after the group threatened a lawsuit and after winning a "Schrammie" from Ken Schram, the College reversed because they're a public campus and now allow free speech on the grounds of the campus. Well after a couple years they stopped coming, then came back last month, and it caused such a stir that the Campus Multi-Cultural club put on a weeks worth of meetings in the conference room open to all students and members of the public, these public forums hosted a guest pane of speakers including Security Director Ed Call and Journalism Professor Mike Prince and some other campus big wig whose name I can't remember. The purpose was to inform students about these people's first amendment right to protest abortion and to explain the first amendment to college students and to have a discussion, this was moderated by the student president of the Multicultural club and audience members would ask questions or make comments for the panel to respond.
Well after Professor Prince explained the SCOTUS Miller Test to determine obscenity and that obscenity was not protected speech (Miller v. California), so a bunch of students began asking why the college couldn't ban the anti-abortion images as Obscenity. So I got up and explained that the Miller test only applied under the 1st amendment, I then cited State v. Henry a case in which the Oregon Supreme Court ruled that obscenity was protected by the Oregon Constitution and that Washington's Article 1 Section 5 constitutional protections were worded very closely to Oregon's. I then concluded that obscenity might have a looser definition then in Washington. THAT opened a nasty can of worms, after being talked condescendingly to by Security Director Call about how the WA state constitution doesn't matter because the "Federal Constitution is the law of the land and thus the state constitution holds no weight" Well I showed up a second day and made the same argument when Ed Call wasn't on the panel to a better reception.
Anyway THE POINT IN ALL THIS IS after the end of todays Forum the president of the Multicultural club said due to the success of the first amendment forums (hundreds of students came to the forum days) They were thinking about having another forum on other constitutional rights, he said he was specifically looking to discuss the 2nd and 4th amendments, and asked If I might be interested in Sitting on the panel! Anyway I don't know when or if it will even happen, but what do you think? Should I accept such an offer? and if yes, and I actually am allowed to be seated, will someone here mind reviewing any notes I make to be ready... like I said this is tentative, nothing is scheduled and it may not happen. but still the idea is fun to me...
Scroll down to the final paragraph if you want to skip the background and go straight to the point, but I encourage you to read the whole deal.
Basically in 2007 an anti-abortion group showed up on OC's main campus in Bremerton, they carry these signs with graphic anti abortion images and messages (I'll inbed one here *Warning, Graphic* well this caused quite a stir on campus, and led to the campus severely restricting free speech, however after the group threatened a lawsuit and after winning a "Schrammie" from Ken Schram, the College reversed because they're a public campus and now allow free speech on the grounds of the campus. Well after a couple years they stopped coming, then came back last month, and it caused such a stir that the Campus Multi-Cultural club put on a weeks worth of meetings in the conference room open to all students and members of the public, these public forums hosted a guest pane of speakers including Security Director Ed Call and Journalism Professor Mike Prince and some other campus big wig whose name I can't remember. The purpose was to inform students about these people's first amendment right to protest abortion and to explain the first amendment to college students and to have a discussion, this was moderated by the student president of the Multicultural club and audience members would ask questions or make comments for the panel to respond.
Well after Professor Prince explained the SCOTUS Miller Test to determine obscenity and that obscenity was not protected speech (Miller v. California), so a bunch of students began asking why the college couldn't ban the anti-abortion images as Obscenity. So I got up and explained that the Miller test only applied under the 1st amendment, I then cited State v. Henry a case in which the Oregon Supreme Court ruled that obscenity was protected by the Oregon Constitution and that Washington's Article 1 Section 5 constitutional protections were worded very closely to Oregon's. I then concluded that obscenity might have a looser definition then in Washington. THAT opened a nasty can of worms, after being talked condescendingly to by Security Director Call about how the WA state constitution doesn't matter because the "Federal Constitution is the law of the land and thus the state constitution holds no weight" Well I showed up a second day and made the same argument when Ed Call wasn't on the panel to a better reception.
Anyway THE POINT IN ALL THIS IS after the end of todays Forum the president of the Multicultural club said due to the success of the first amendment forums (hundreds of students came to the forum days) They were thinking about having another forum on other constitutional rights, he said he was specifically looking to discuss the 2nd and 4th amendments, and asked If I might be interested in Sitting on the panel! Anyway I don't know when or if it will even happen, but what do you think? Should I accept such an offer? and if yes, and I actually am allowed to be seated, will someone here mind reviewing any notes I make to be ready... like I said this is tentative, nothing is scheduled and it may not happen. but still the idea is fun to me...