The Definitive List of States That Want to Determine What Residents Can Say

This article originally appeared on WND.com

Guest by post by Bob Unruh 

There now is a definitive list of states where officials want to be able to censor their residents, controlling what they claim is “misleading information.”

And all 23 are led by Democrats.

The list comes courtesy of constitutional expert and popular legal commentator Jonathan Turley, a renowned law professor at George Washington University who not only has testified as an expert before Congress but has represented members in court.

“For years, we have discussed the alarming shift in the Democratic party on free speech with candidates running on pledges to censor opposing views and politicians supporting blacklisting and censorship on social media,” he explained. “Many citizens oppose such efforts to restrict their rights under the First Amendment, but are unaware of the work of their representatives to limit free speech. Now, a filing in the Supreme Court supporting censorship efforts by the Biden administration has supplied a handy list of the anti-free speech states for citizens.”

The legal filing comes in the case Missouri v. Biden in which a district court judge ordered the government to stop coordinating censorship campaigns with social media companies. That ruling is on hold now while the U.S. Supreme Court considers the facts.

The district judge who originally ruled in the dispute, Terry Doughty, charged that, “The United States government seems to have assumed a role similar to an Orwellian ‘Ministry of Truth.’”

In the case, the evidence shows Biden administration officials would pick a comment they disliked, then complain to one of several foundations or organizations. Those groups then would lobby social media companies until those comments were censored.

Turley noted, “The 5th Circuit previously ruled in Missouri v. Biden that administration officials ‘likely violated’ the First Amendment and issued a preliminary injunction banning the government from communicating with social media companies to limit speech.”

He explained California “is leading the effort to get the Supreme Court to reverse a decision enjoining the government from censorship efforts. California has long sought to impose speech limits on doctors, businesses, and citizens to silence opposing viewpoints.”

But he said other Democrat-led states also have joined “this ignoble effort in signing on to the brief of California Attorney General Rob Bonta. ”

He said, “The brief lauds past efforts of these states to combat ‘harmful content’ on the Internet and to protect the public from ‘misleading information’ through partnerships with social media companies.”

The list includes: Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin and District of Columbia.

Copyright 2023 WND News Center

Senior Harvard Law Prof Identifies Those Groups SUPPORTING Hamas Terrorists

This article originally appeared on WND.com

Guest by post by Bob Unruh 

‘Radicals, revolutionaries, anti-Semites and useful idiots’

Hamas launched a war with Israel on October 7 when its terrorists invaded from Gaza and butchered an estimated 1,200 to 1,400 civilians.

Israel is responding with a military campaign that is described as intending to wipe out that threat of further terrorism.

But there are groups that have thrown their lot in with the terrorists, and Alan Dershowitz has written a column identifying them.

Dershowitz is the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law, Emeritus at Harvard Law School, and the Jack Roth Charitable Foundation Fellow at Gatestone Institute.

At that organization’s website, he explained those “who have supported the Hamas barbarism against Israel are:”

First, “radical Islamic groups that, like the Islamic Republic of Iran after the 1979 revolution, regard Israel as the ‘Little Satan’ and America as the ‘Big Satan.’”

Also, “American revolutionary groups who used to be affiliated with Communism but now call themselves radical socialists or workers parties. Their goal is to overthrow our government and they attach themselves to every disruptive movement in the hope of garnering support and creating distrust for American democracy.”

Then there’s those “old-fashioned anti-Semites who hate anything associated with Jews and concoct conspiracy theories that blame ‘the Jews’ for all evils.”

Finally, there are the “useful idiots who have little or no knowledge of the issues but march in lockstep with all ‘woke,’ ‘hard left,’ and ‘anti-colonial’ causes.”

He counseled, “Recall that these protests began before Israel counterattacked against Hamas. They were in full bloom on October 8, even while the bodies of 1,200 murdered Israelis, including babies burned alive, were still being gathered and counted, and the roughly 240 hostages taken by Hamas to Gaza identified. These demonstrations were not against Israeli military actions in Gaza; they had not begun yet.”

He charged that the original response to the “Hamas barbarism” set a standard for the agenda, including those demands for a ceasefire.

He warned those are “orchestrated by some of the same radical groups that organized the pro-Hamas demonstrations before Israel went into Gaza. Demonstrations and protests by groups such as the Students for Justice in Palestine, Jewish Voice for Peace or the National Lawyers Guild seem anything but spontaneous and grassroots responses to ‘Israel’s military actions in Gaza.’”

He said the basic fact is that during Israel’s “legitimate military efforts to destroy Hamas terrorists and weapons” hidden among civilians, some of those civilians have died and that allows the recruitment of more anti-Israel “useful idiots.”

He explained that those Israel opponents actually are relatively small, but those “useful idiots” make the protests larger and more organized.

He said the protests actually are “exclusively anti-Israel, anti-American, pro-Hamas, and pro-terrorism.”

And the problem could grow, he warned.

“What if the useful idiots who now march for Hamas in favor of Israel’s destruction become a fifth column in America and willingly join Hamas terrorists in targeting Jewish and other institutions in our nation?”

Copyright 2023 WND News Center