The Left Continues to Try to Effectively Repeal the 1st Amendment

The Left’s war on free speech is not just with Citizens United; it has spread to debate on the issues.  The left is actually trying to chill debate, even criminalize it. 

The March 29 news conference unveiled, according to New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman, an “unprecedented” coalition to fight not only climate change but also allegedly deceptive speech about climate change. The group, which dubbed itself AGs United for Clean Power, promised to “use all the tools at our disposal” to battle for progress on “the most consequential issue of our time.”

As one of the primary targets, Competitive Enterprise Institute lawyer Sam Kazman writes:

Regardless of where you stand on global warming policy, the notion of a multi-state campaign to end the debate ought to make you worry. After all, there are many science-driven policy debates out there, on topics ranging from genetically modified food to population control. It is not as if the government has a sterling reputation when it comes to science. From Galileo to today’s food plate, we know government politicizes science. It ought not to punish dissent, too.

It is not just CEI and the groups under attack that should be concerned but everyone:

[Virgin Island’s Attorney General] Walker’s subpoena is itself of dubious legality, according to some legal experts.

“What they’re doing looks like a concerted scheme to restrict the First Amendment free speech rights of people they don’t agree with,” itself a potential violation of federal law, wrote University of Tennessee law professor Glenn Reynolds.

Sam Kazman of CEI will be speaking as part of a panel covering this and other aspects of the left’s war on free speech at the RNLA Policy Conference this Friday.