Knowing
full well that it violated the Constitution of the United
States, the State legislatures in
href="http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/190122">Arizona,
Florida,
href="http://news.aol.com/elections-blog/2006/10/31/bush-lied-they-died-t-shirt-censored/">Louisiana,
Texas,
and
href="http://news.aol.com/elections-blog/2006/10/31/bush-lied-they-died-t-shirt-censored/">Oklahoma
have passed laws that ban the unauthorized use of names or
images of members of the Armed Forces.
This
was prompted by an Arizona businessman who started selling
t-shirts...
(The
t-shirts have the names of service members killed in the Iraq War.)
The US House of Representatives, in the 109th Congress, considered
similar
legislation. It (
href="http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h109-5755">H.R.
5755) was introduced by
href="http://www.house.gov/boren/" rel="tag">Dan Boren,
a Democrat. He had 106 cosponsors, with a lot of
Republicans and Democrats signing on. He did it again in the
110th, (
href="http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h110-269">H.R.
269). This time around, he has only 35
cosponsors, but that includes 16 other Democrats. There have
been
other, similar attempts, but you get the point.
These bills are plainly
unconstitutional. So here we have legislators
knowingly (mostly;
href="http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/related/191419.php">some
did not read it) or negligently conspiring to violate the US
Constitution.
Naturally, the shirts have
href="http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/local/56978.php">been
selling a lot better since they've been outlawed.
One
of the commenters
at Volokh Conspiracy pointed out that the Arizona law would
ban images of George Washington. I wonder if there is such a
picture in the Arizona legislature.
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I am a Louisianian. I am so getting one of these shirts.
Couldn't they get around this rule by using a list of names of Iraqis who have been slaughtered by American armed forces? Oh, I see the problem, they would need an XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXL size t-shirt, too big even for Florida.
What a one-sided little quibble, bickering about some pathetic little rule (believe it or not, Moses did not bring down the U.S. Constitution on tablets of stone, it's just a bunch of glorified golf club rules).
T-shirts don't matter, it's the blood (from whatever colour skin) that's shed by your murderous government's avarice that's important. Just stop the killing, pull back to your own continent (isn't it big enough?), and leave the rest of the world alone.
Which is the more regrettable death, an American who has voluntarily accepted the president's dollar to kill, with both the rewards and risks that that entails, or an Iraqi child or young mother, whose only sins are to have the bad luck to be born in a country which Americans are drooling over?
It's high time that America grew up out of its adolescent behaviour. Pathetic.
Good post and comments! The Flouting of the First Amendment