Court weighs anti-terror law, free speech

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: bobr () bobrosenberg phoenix az us
> Date: February 24, 2010 3:46:22 AM EST
> To: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
> Subject: Court weighs anti-terror law, free speech

> Dave
>
> Perhaps for I.P.
>
> IANAL, but I am confused.
>
> In 8th grade at Osborn school here in Phoenix, lo these many decades  
> ago, Lloyd
> Wilhite taught us that the Constitution is the supreme law of the  
> land.  He taught
> us that the U.S. Code falls beneath the Constitution.
>
> My confusion arises from the accompanying headline, "Court weighs  
> anti-terror law,
> free speech".  If I was taught correctly, it seems to me that the  
> Constitution
> prevails.
>
> Can some lawyer(s) on I.P. set me straight?
>
> Thanks!
> Bob
>
> --
>
> Bob Rosenberg
> P.O. Box 33023
> Phoenix, AZ  85067-3023
> Mobile:  602-206-2856
> LandLine:  602-274-3012
> bob () bobrosenberg phoenix az us
>
> This message is hereby Creative Commons licensed:  Attribution- 
> NonCommercial
>
>
>
> Court weighs anti-terror law, free speech
>
> 2 comments Feb. 24, 2010 12:00 AM
> McClatchy-Tribune
> http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/2010/02/24/20100224scotus-terror0224.html
>
> WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court struggled Tuesday to resolve a  
> conflict between the
> free-speech rights of a Los Angeles-based advocate for international  
> peace and a
> broad anti-terrorism law that makes it a crime to advise a foreign  
> terrorist group,
> even if it means advising its members to seek peace.
>
> The justices sounded closely split between those who saw this as a  
> terrorism case
> and those who saw it as a free-speech case. A ruling in the case is  
> expected in late
> June.
>
> U.S. Solicitor General Elena Kagan urged the court to uphold the  
> broad sweep of the
> terrorism law and to permit prosecutions of anyone who gives any  
> support to a
> terrorist group. She discounted the "supposed First Amendment  
> claims" raised by
> human-rights advocates.
>
> "When you help Hezbollah build homes, you're helping them build  
> bombs," she said.
>
> But Georgetown law professor David Cole said the human-rights  
> advocates he
> represents are not interested in supplying bombs, but rather in  
> urging foreign
> groups to avoid violence and to take their disputes to the United  
> Nations.
>
> "They seek peaceful solutions to conflict. And they support only  
> lawful activities,"
> he said. Cole is representing the Humanitarian Law Project in Los  
> Angeles and its
> president, Ralph Fertig, a University of Southern California  
> professor who has
> advised the Kurds in Turkey.
>
> In 1997, the State Department listed the Kurdistan Workers Party as  
> a foreign
> terrorist group, which meant Fertig could go to prison for giving  
> "expert advice or
> assistance" to Kurdish leaders.
>
> "The government has been arguing for more than a decade that our  
> clients cannot
> advocate for peace," Cole said.



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