Great Decision: Butts County Sheriff’s Halloween Signs Violate the First Amendment.
A great decision just out from the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals (FLORIDA’S CIRCUIT 🙂 ). The signs Butts County (Georgia) Sheriff posted in front of registrant’s homes right before Halloween are compelled speech and violate the First Amendment.
This is a great decision, for multiple reasons. First, it’s in our circuit, so it’s binding precedent. Second, many municipalities in Florida have similar ordinances, which are now ripe for challenge. And Third, because it raises a viable argument against other forms of compelled speech all Florida registrants are subject to, such as branded driver’s license.
You can read the decision here: Butts County Order 11th Circuit
Sheriff Long admits he has never had a registrant commit a sex crime on Halloween or any other time against a minor. If he’s a real man he’d place signs telling the community their children’s risk are cars on Halloween and not registrants.
Brandon
And they use to scare us as kids and say candy could be filled with poison, needles, razor blades. There have been a few isolated incidents of that over the years but I only recently heard of it again where some candy was found with sharps inside of it.
Should we ban people from enjoying nature because a few people each year are attacked by bears, bitten by snakes or fall off a cliff? I say all these bears need to be registered as violent offenders with their pictures posted at the entrance to the trail. Wildlife officers should go 4 once a month to their den and make sure the bears are in compliance with the “Human anti attack ordinance”.
To Brandon, Gloria, and others below, Brandon is correct in saying, “Right now I believe that writing, calling, and speaking to legislators telling them to oppose ridiculous bills.”
I have emailed members of the Florida Senate Criminal Justice Committee asking them to vote against Senator Hooper’s new definition of the word “day”: “any part of a calendar day.” I will be sending out more emails if this new definition of the word “day” moves forward to other committees.
These committee members need to hear from many of us.
https://www.flsenate.gov/committees
https://www.myfloridahouse.gov/sections/committees/committees.aspx
Media
I’ll continue to contact them even though I don’t reside in Florida. After living there I know how bad the laws are and the weight on everyone’s shoulders. Hopefully lawmakers will see that there’s increasing opposition to their bills and back off. Instead of focusing on 44k residents and the definition of a day, maybe they should focus on funding edumacation and increasing graduation rates.
Thank you, Brandon.