Tennessee Assaults Speech

On July 1, two different laws took effect that are a direct frontal assault on and should chill free speech in Tennessee. Our moderate Republican Governor Jim Haslam either hates liberty or was too dumb to recognize that signing a law banning "images that offend" on the Internet and green lighting another law prohibiting "offensive bumper stickers" is an attack on the First Amendment of the US Constitution. I am the furthest thing in the world from a supporter of the American Civil Liberties Union with their defense of Westboro Baptist with their deliberate attack at troop funerals on the families of dead soldiers and their advocacy some years back for Nazis marching in Skokie, Illinois which hosted the largest percentage of Holocaust survivors in such a concentrated area anywhere in the United States. But even for someone who is no fan of the ACLU, I hope they overturn the over-broad, overly subjective restrictions of speech that have just gone into effect in my home state of Tennessee. Sweeping legislation like these new laws kills a fly with an atom bomb. What might offend me might not offend you and vice versa. Some folks might want to see a car pulled over and ticketed because of and old "W" sticker from the last President Bush's reelection and others might not like the "O" displayed by Obama supporters. Some people might not like anti-abortion messages on the web because they show the grim aftermath on a pro-life webpage. These limits on speech do not meet Constitutional muster and will not survive the scrutiny of Federal courts. Gee, I hope no one is so put off by my characterization of Governor Haslam that they report me to Tennessee's new web censors.