Peaceably to Assemble

Scott Hardie | February 13, 2017
I'm curious about this not just from a legal standpoint, but also from a moral standpoint: Does joining a website or other online community count as assembling? And as such, is it constitutionally protected under the first amendment? Is it an inalienable right regardless of citizenship?

News stories about "extreme vetting" of refugees got me wondering. One official said that among many other steps, the process would involve turning over your passwords to every website you visit, so that authorities can see who you associate with and what you talk about. The constitution provides no guarantee of privacy, but it does protect your right to talk to whoever you want. Should having even minimal contact online with ISIS -- say, watching one of their videos once -- disqualify you for entry? Where should the line be drawn regarding "peaceable" assembly online with other people?

Erik Bates | February 14, 2017
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Scott Hardie | February 18, 2017
I'm a little sensitive about the subject in part because I've spent a lot of time thinking about living life publicly online. I've had a lot of people refuse to register with their real names on this site, and a lot of people who did and wrote things publicly that they later wished they hadn't. From day one, I've always figured that anything that I write on the public Internet could be seen by anyone, and what few things I do in private like email aren't really guaranteed to stay private; for one thing, the other person in the conversation can forward it or publicize it at any time. I know that it has skewed my perception of what's normal and how I operate this site, but what can I say? It's how I experience the Internet. I guess that's why most people are more concerned about the privacy violation aspect of this, while I'm concerned about the guilt by association aspect of this. I haven't had any contact online with criminals or terrorists or other bad hombres, but if I had, it shouldn't in and of itself damn me, or cost me my legal rights.

Lori Lancaster | February 21, 2017
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Scott Hardie | February 24, 2017
I am certainly not an immigration attorney or any kind of expert on the subject. But to my untrained ears, it sounds an awful lot like anyone suspected of being an undocumented immigrant is currently treated and processed like a criminal, with them being required to produce proof of their legal status, rather than law enforcement being required to produce proof of their illegal status, which is clearly unconstitutional. I've read about deportations happening within one day of arrest, which is absurd. But I guess certain people who claim to care about the all-important Constitution only truly care when other people are interpreting it in ways that they don't like.

Schools have some leeway under the law to establish conduct rules to keep students safe (in loco parentis), but students' civil liberties cannot be violated. I can see a staff member searching a locker with reasonable cause, but sending other students into a fellow student's locker? That's like the local sheriff having me go into my neighbor's house to see if he has any drugs or weapons. (I think I'd find out very quickly that he had weapons if I walked in unannounced.)

Lori Lancaster | March 1, 2017
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Scott Hardie | March 10, 2017
I try not to think about this subject, because it makes me so angry and I feel so powerless to stop it. I read so often in the news these days about families torn apart because of ICE, parents detained and shipped out of the country while their children are in class, and I hear from conservative friends that "oh come on, it's not that bad," and I don't know what to do with the rage that I feel. I sadly disagree: This racism really is who we are and who we always have been as a country, and the only comfort to take is that it is very, very, very slowly getting better. :-(