Anyone with a law school education knows that state action is required before anyone can whine about having their free speech rights taken away. Well, okay — you can whine about it, but that’s about it. You can’t get a court to step in and fix your problem, unless some government entity is involved. Not to go too far off track here, but this is the whole idea behind the Constitution. It’s a big long list of the things that government isn’t supposed to do, and a really short list of what it *may* do.
Enough 1790′s background; let’s talk 2010. If you’re a redneck (this is not necessarily a requirement, but it helps), and you decide to publish a “newspaper” (not sure what else to call it) that describes your political ideas, don’t get all uppity if the local KFC won’t let you put it on the take-one-free rack, between the Auto Trader and the Keels and Wheels. It’s not a constitutional issue.
The scary part of this story is that you have to wade two thirds of the way into this Fox News article before they reveal that little tid bit to the reader who isn’t in the know. How many of those readers have the kind of attention span necessary to make it that far? More than likely, the majority start seeing red after reading the headline, and three sentences in, they’re sputtering some nonsense about “they’re ruinin’ are country” and clicking over to something more soothing. Gold star for journalistic integrity to Fox News on this one!
This article was originally posted on The Legal Satyricon
