rsk@j.cc.purdue.edu.UUCP (05/27/87)
I am not a lawyer, merely a student of the law. The following are my own opinions, and should not be considered authoritative. 1. Right of free speech. The constitutional guarantee of free speech is not absolute; the courts have defined some of its boundaries from time to time. For instance, one is not free to shout "FIRE!" in a crowded theater. Further, the free speech guarantee applies to laws made by the Congress, not to the acts of individuals. (The text of the 1st Amendment: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.") With regard to access to media, the courts have ruled that the operators of such media are not, in general, obligated to make their facilities available for anyone's use. (An exception to this is the "equal time" rule, as applied to mass media.) Simply put, no one is required to provide anyone else with a free soapbox. In fact, they're not required to provide them with a soapbox at all, except in certain cases. (Example: television stations may refuse to carry ads for condoms, even if the manufacturer offers to pay the going advertising rate. Example: A "public-access" Unix site may refuse anyone's business, even if they are willing to pay for their usage.) 2. Discrimination. Denial of service to an individual for reasons other than race, color, sex, religion, national origin, etc., is not discrimination. For example, college admission criteria based on intelligence (or SAT/ACT scores, or high school grades, etc.) are not discriminatory, even though these criteria act in favor of one class of individuals and against another. 3. Defamation. Defamation may either be libel (if written) or slander (if spoken). There are a number of viable defenses to defamation; one of the most potent is, simply, truth. If the truth of the allegedly libelous material can be proved, then it is not libelous. (Example: Mark Ethan Smith is either female or male; a number of physiological tests, from the mundane to the complex, exist to verify this. If Mark Ethan Smith is of sex X, then refering to Mark Ethan Smith with the pronouns appropriate to sex X is not libelous.) -- Rich Kulawiec, rsk@j.cc.purdue.edu, j.cc.purdue.edu!rsk