{"id":2406,"date":"2011-02-13T13:44:09","date_gmt":"2011-02-13T18:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/02\/prior-restraint-prof-jane-elza.html"},"modified":"2011-02-13T13:44:09","modified_gmt":"2011-02-13T18:44:09","slug":"prior-restraint-prof-jane-elza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/02\/prior-restraint-prof-jane-elza.html","title":{"rendered":"Prior restraint &#8211;Prof. Jane Elza"},"content":{"rendered":"This LTE appeared in the VDT today. Here is\n<a href=\"\/blog\/2011\/02\/new-meeting-new-rules-lowndes-county-commission.html\">context<\/a> in case you haven&#8217;t been following this subject.\n-jsq\n<blockquote>\nDear Sir,\n<p>\nThe County Commission has recently passed a resolution that will\nprohibit discussion of issues the commissioners consider closed by\ncitizens in the \u201ccitizens will be heard\u201d section of the Commission\nmeetings. While apparently reasonable on its face, the restriction is\ndesigned specifically to prevent any more discussion of the Biomass\nplant. Commissioners have been quoted in the paper as saying they\njust don\u2019t want to hear anymore about it. A law designed to prevent a\ncitizen from discussing a particular subject is prior restraint. I taught\nConstitutional law at VSU for 28 years and I think this resolution is\nunconstitutional for that reason. One cannot separate the intent from\nthe prohibition.\n<p>\nI can also argue that the restriction itself is unreasonable because\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<!--more-->\n<blockquote>\nit\nlimits speech by content to what the commissioners consider closed. What\nis to prevent the commissioners from finding everything they don\u2019t like\nor don\u2019t want to listen to closed? That gives very broad powers to a\nsmall group that the very existence of a \u201ccitizens will be heard\u201d\nsection of the agenda denies. If the commissioners can tell citizens\nto say only what the commissioners want to hear, there\u2019s really no\nneed for a \u201ccitizens will be heard\u201d place on the agenda. Citizens\nare already limited to public issues and by time constraints. Now the\nCommission wants to dictate the topics of discussion within the category\nof public issues. That\u2019s prior restraint.\n<p>\nThe restriction is unreasonable also because it prevents the Commission\nfrom getting new information on a subject it considers closed. It\nis denying itself the opportunity to change its mind or adjust to new\nconditions. Worse, it is closing its ears to its citizens while remaining\nopen to other sources. These other sources have an informal, nonpublic\naccess denied to citizens.\n<p>\nThe commissioners do not have to listen attentively to what citizens say,\nbut they do have to listen. It\u2019s what they were elected to do. They\ndon\u2019t get to pick and choose what they hear.\n<p>\nYours truly,\n<p>\nDr. Jane Elza\n<br>\nValdosta\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This LTE appeared in the VDT today. Here is context in case you haven&#8217;t been following this subject. -jsq Dear Sir, The County Commission has recently passed a resolution that will prohibit discussion of issues the commissioners consider closed by citizens in the \u201ccitizens will be heard\u201d section of the Commission meetings. While apparently reasonable [&hellip;]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[97,120,20,88,133,178,134],"tags":[8738,8701,5054,7,8734,5055,180,8742,8749,8743],"class_list":["post-2406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-biomass","category-law","category-lowndes-county-commission","category-vdt","category-vlcia","category-vsu","tag-biomass","tag-georgia","tag-jane-elza","tag-lowndes-county","tag-lowndes-county-commission","tag-prior-restraint","tag-valdosta-lowndes-county-industrial-authority","tag-vdt","tag-vlcia","tag-vsu"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-CO","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2406\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}