Ron DeCensorious shouldn't get a pass for muzzling "hate speech" - JAFFA Wire No. 6.
HB 269 is meant to address the nuisance of a small anti-Jewish group that leaflets residential driveways, but the potential for overreach is too great to ignore.
On April 28 at the David Citadel Hotel in Jerusalem Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida put pen to paper and signed HB 269, a piece of legislation aimed at curbing hatred against Jews. The backdrop for the ceremony was a stage with a background featuring the Jerusalem Post’s logo flanked by the American and Israeli flags. The stated target of the legislation are a group that has been causing a nuisance in Florida communities for months with crude and deliberately provocative leaflets dropped on driveways and banners hoisted over highway overpasses. However the bill has the potential, unless struck down by the courts, to sweep up all manner of supporters of unrelated causes. It doesn’t matter how abrasive or obnoxious the group distributing the leaflets is, the new law is a threat to the First Amendment and DeSantis cannot be given cover for it based on “good intentions”.
Critics in the political arena and the media have already attempted to target DeSantis as a tyrannical threat to free speech. In early April archrival Gov. Gavin Newsom of California attacked him for “banning books” because Florida had removed certain books from school libraries and curricula. However he has his own history of unconstitutional free speech abridgements such as a law passed in 2022 that allowed state medical boards to discipline doctors for “medical misinformation”, which was struck down this January by a federal judge.
But none of those that have previously attacked DeSantis over gender and education policy will touch HB 269. They wouldn’t want to criticize government overreach against the wrong group of people, and they are not alone. The people targeted by HB 269 do very little service to their cause when they picket synagogues and berate drivers, drop banners over highways and (allegedly) threaten the life of Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood. Therefore I want to make one thing clear: Regardless of the nature of the group that Gov. DeSantis is targeting through the legislation, any measure that infringes on the First Amendment rights of that group provides a precedent that could potentially be expanded to a completely unrelated cause. Jewish American activist and former congressional candidate Laura Loomer called out DeSantis, saying he “criminalizes speech”.
After reading through the text of the bill, I found that many of the changes are simply adjusting the penalties for certain activities like vandalism and littering that are already illegal to make them more severe. However other sections present major hazards such as one where “a person enters the campus of a state university or 133 Florida College System institution for the purpose of 134 threatening or intimidating another person” is charged as misdemeanor or hate crime. While this may seem like common sense, it is fraught with potential for overreach. Universities receive visitors every day with different motivations, and among those are people that hand out literature in promotion of a cause. Conceivably any of these motivations could be called into question for having intent to threaten or intimidate another person, in fact they have already in other states. In 2016 Chike Uzuegbunam, a student at Georgia Gwinnett College, was confronted by police for passing out Christian leaflets on the campus. He brought the case all the way to the Supreme Court even after the school relented and changed its policy. Eventually he won in 2022 when the college settled the case and he was awarded the symbolic damages he demanded of $1.
In our system presidential elections occur every four years and they alternate with midterm elections that happen two years after that. Many Americans are all too comfortable focusing on backing their candidate no matter what, and DeSantis already has such boosters even though he still has not announced his candidacy. I find it important to hold leaders like him at arms length even in times like these, despite other positive policies in Florida. Throughout my time writing or video editing I have remained consistent in supporting the 1st Amendment and civil liberties regardless of whether I have any affinity to the cause that is being censored. This means that over time I have supported the civil liberties of the likes of Roger Waters and Louis Farrakhan, individuals that I dislike on a personal or ideological basis. In 2019 long before I conceived of having a Jewish Alliance for the First Amendment I wrote a piece called “The Comfortable Trap of a Good Law”. In it I disputed the necessity of having anti-BDS (Boycott Divestment Sanctions) legislation and warned that President Trump was wrong to use an executive order to exclude BDS supporters from benefitting from federal programs and grants. I did not oppose the EO because I dislike Donald Trump, nor because I support boycotting Israel, but rather because this was targeting federal contractors based on their political views.
I remember a time when Americans were free to have spirited, even bitter debates over important matters of public policy without fear that they would run afoul of the law. Sadly that time has passed, but hopefully we can restore it again for our future generations.