Repeal Depression-era libel law ... for starters

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Mon, 28 May 2001 10:03:24 GMT

FROM MOUNTAIN MEDIA
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE DATED MARCH 7, 2001
THE LIBERTARIAN, By Vin Suprynowicz
Repeal Depression-era libel law ... for starters

A lot of unconstitutional bunk got peddled back in the early 1930s, as governments federal and local scrambled to remedy an economic debacle resulting (as the late Murray Rothbard exhaustively demonstrated in "America's Great Depression") from a double whammy of almost metaphysical proportions: a wanton increase in the paper money supply (and, thus, of credit) during the Roaring '20s, followed by the refusal of that "great interventionist," Herbert Hoover, to let wages correct downward along with prices after the resulting crash of '29.

With jaw-dropping predictability, government thus created vast unemployment through its ill-considered interventions in the economy -- and then announced with a straight face that the only possible solution was ... more government intervention.

Many of the resulting attempts to infringe Americans' historic economic and political liberties -- socializing the nation's economy on the bizarre assumption that the best "fix" would be to mimic policies which had already left millions starving in Lenin's Russia -- were rightly thrown out as unconstitutional as soon as they reached the courts.

But just as many of these hastily-cobbled-together Ponzi schemes and bureaucratic full-employment programs survived, to be sanctified over time as "vital elements of our wise and benevolent social safety net."

How silly were some of these measures? Hoping to stem bank runs on local financial institutions which had plunged incautiously in the speculative boom, Nevada legislators in 1931 enacted a law which made it illegal to criticize a Nevada bank or its financial viability in print -- even if the statements were provably true.

Though the financial crisis passed and is long since forgotten, this Nevada law was still on the books when Senior Deputy Attorney General Doug Walther notified the Culinary Union back in 1996 that a leaflet the union was circulating -- stating that Commercial Bank was losing money -- ran them afoul of the long-forgotten law.

(The union was in a labor dispute with the Santa Fe Casino at the time -- and then-state Sen. Sue Lowden, an owner of the casino, sat on the board of Commercial Bank, which later merged with Colonial Bank.)

Fortunately, Senior U.S. District Judge Lloyd George forbade the state from enforcing the law, which he held to be in direct violation of the First Amendment's free-speech guarantees.

So far so good.

Yes, it would be reprehensible for anyone to malign a legitimate business for political reasons. But banks have full access to the courts to file their own civil actions for libel or slander if they see fit . A pre-emptive ban on consumers stating an opinion about a local enterprise's policies -- let alone citing provably accurate facts -- has no place in a free country.

Now comes state Sen. Terry Care, D-Las Vegas -- a former television news director -- proposing legislation in Carson City this year to repeal the dated and ill-conceived 1931 ordinance, entirely.

Good. It's not enough to say a bad law "shouldn't be enforced," since that always leaves open the possibility of the old blunderbuss being rolled out and used -- selectively or vindictively -- at some time in future.

"I just thought it was offensive to the First Amendment to have a statute like that," sayeth Mr. Care, and right he is. (And I hope we can expect Mr. Care to carry on from here, actively seeking repeal of all state laws which offend against the Second, Ninth, and Tenth amendments, as well.)

In the meantime ... let's get this bad law off the books.

Vin Suprynowicz is assistant editorial page editor of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Subscribe to his monthly newsletter by sending $72 to Privacy Alert, 1475 Terminal Way, Suite E for Easy, Reno, NV 89502. His book, "Send in the Waco Killers: Essays on the Freedom Movement, 1993-1998," is available at 1-800-244-2224, or via web site www.thespiritof76.com/wacokillers.html.

Vin Suprynowicz, vin@lvrj.com

"When great changes occur in history, when great principles are involved, as a rule the majority are wrong. The minority are right." -- Eugene V. Debs (1855-1926)

"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed -- and thus clamorous to be led to safety -- by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." -- H.L. Mencken

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The questions that are never asked, Part II

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Government doesn't work. Never did. Never will. Can't. But there are lots of good people. Love them.

-- Bill St. Clair

The Atlanta Declaration

Every man, woman, and responsible child has an unalienable individual, civil, Constitutional, and human right to obtain, own, and carry, openly or concealed, any weapon -- rifle, shotgun, handgun, machinegun, anything -- any time, any place, without asking anyone's permission.

-- L. Neil Smith

Reread that pesky first clause of the Second Amendment. It doesn't say what any of us thought it said. What it says is that infringing the right of the people to keep and bear arms is treason. What else do you call an act that endangers "the security of a free state"? And if it's treason, then it's punishable by death. I suggest due process, speedy trials, and public hangings.

-- L. Neil Smith

A Penalty Clause for the Bill of Rights

Any official, appointed or elected, at any level of government, who attempts, through legislative act or other means, to nullify, evade, or avoid the provisions of the first ten amendments to this Constitution, or of the Thirteenth Amendment, shall be summarily removed from office, and, upon conviction, deprived of all pay and benefits including pension, and sentenced to imprisonment for life.

-- L. Neil Smith

Based on 253 journal articles, 99 books, 43 government publications, and some of its own empirical work, the panel couldn't identify a single gun control regulation that reduced violent crime, suicide or accidents.

-- John Lott, commenting on the National Academy of Sciences report on gun control laws.

Who is a libertarian?

Zero Aggression Principle ("Zap")

"A libertarian is a person who believes that no one has the right, under any circumstances, to initiate force against another human being, or to advocate or delegate its initiation. Those who act consistently with this principle are libertarians, whether they realize it or not. Those who fail to act consistently with it are not libertarians, regardless of what they may claim."

-- L. Neil Smith

(Formerly called the "Non-Aggression Principle", or "NAP")

Why Did It Have to be... Guns?

Make no mistake: all politicians -- even those ostensibly on the side of guns and gun ownership -- hate the issue and anyone, like me, who insists on bringing it up. They hate it because it's an X-ray machine. It's a Vulcan mind-meld. It's the ultimate test to which any politician -- or political philosophy -- can be put.

If a politician isn't perfectly comfortable with the idea of his average constituent, any man, woman, or responsible child, walking into a hardware store and paying cash -- for any rifle, shotgun, handgun, machinegun, anything -- without producing ID or signing one scrap of paper, he isn't your friend no matter what he tells you.

If he isn't genuinely enthusiastic about his average constituent stuffing that weapon into a purse or pocket or tucking it under a coat and walking home without asking anybody's permission, he's a four-flusher, no matter what he claims.

What his attitude -- toward your ownership and use of weapons -- conveys is his real attitude about you. And if he doesn't trust you, then why in the name of John Moses Browning should you trust him?

-- L. Neil Smith

Concise

"Tell me," I was once asked, "What do you think about gun control? Give me the short answer." To which I replied, "If you try to take our firearms we will kill you."

-- Mike Vanderboegh

Also from The Atlanta Declaration:

... like going to the bathroom, breathing, eating, sleeping, or making love, it turns out that self-defense is a bodily function one cannot safely or effectively delegate to a second party.

-- L. Neil Smith

This does not mean that "Marijuana should be available by prescription." It means that morphine sulfate should be available in five pound bags at the supermarket for a couple of bucks, like sugar... but probably in a different aisle, to avoid confusion.

-- Vin Suprynowicz

If you refuse to pay unjust taxes, your property will be confiscated. If you attempt to defend your property, you will be arrested. If you resist arrest, you will be clubbed. If you defend yourself against clubbing, you will be shot dead. These procedures are known as the Rule of Law.

-- Edward Abbey

The state can only survive as long as a majority is programmed to believe that theft isn't wrong if it's called taxation or asset forfeiture or eminent domain, that assault and kidnapping isn't wrong if it's called arrest, that mass murder isn't wrong if it's called war.

-- Bill St. Clair

End the War on Freedom

Repeal Depression-era libel law ... for starters