Posted by wlansden |
Filed under news and comments, government
By James Bowden
That’s Mark Hays, General Counsel for the Arkansas Municipal League, reacting to an ordinance passed by the City Council of Gould, Arkansas setting forth with the (supposed) force of law that “No new organizations shall be allowed to exist in the City of Gould without approval from a majority of the City Council” as reported in this New York Times article. This passage of this ordinance is a sort of First Amendment Violation Hat Trick for the Gould City Town Counsel, having recently passed an ordinance requiring that the Gould Citizens Advisory Counsel, a political group based in Gould that seeks to influence how the town is governed, cease to exist, and another prohibiting the mayor from meeting with “any organization in any location inside or outside Gould city limits.” Holy Schnikes.
To be fair, Ms. Sonya Farley, a Gould city councilwoman, has admitted that the ordinance was “worded wrong” and was passed “to treat everybody fairly.” So I’m guessing the offending ordinance will be reworded to somehow do right by the whole “Congress [extended to all state actors, including city councils, by the 14th Amendment] shall make no law […] 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” language of the First Amendment. I expect that the Gould City Council’s attorneys will be scratching their head on the work around long into the wee hours of every night, until the end of time.
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