Lemon Aid Is Bogus Under 1st Amendment

Letter to Romans: Lemon me this: Reporters “have no right to disobey the law or disrupt religious exercise.” What about Don’s 1st Amendment right to report the news? 1st Amendment, my a**. It names religious freedom 1^st & NO ONE has freedom to commit a crime.

ESPECIALLY in a church and during church services. So opined the WSJ’s William McGurn: “On the morning of Jan. 18, according to prosecutors, [former CNN anchor] Mr. Lemon joined 20 to 40 agitators in a ‘coordinated takeover-style attack’ on Cities Church in St. Paul during Sunday service. On Friday, Mr. Lemon & 8 others were criminally charged on two counts stemming from that attack. The first is conspiracy to deprive Cities Church congregants of their religious liberty and the second is interfering with their religious liberty in a house of worship … Mr. Lemon’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, invoked [his] 1^st Amendment right [to report on the alleged ICE protestors’ takeover] … Scott Johnson, a St. Paul resident … cut to the heart of the competing 1^st Amendment claim [by writing] ‘Do they have a 1^stAmendment right to interfere with the 1^st Amendment rights of others? I think the question answers itself.’

“In the meantime,” adds Mr. McGurn, here’s one last, basic fact that appears to be misunderstood: The 1^st Amendment doesn’t give journalists a right to disobey laws [either]. Don Lemon had exactly the same 1^st Amendment right to barge into a church and disrupt a worship service as I would have to walk into his home & start reporting on his private dinner party – namely, none at all,” at least, according to Eric Rassbach, VP & Sr. Counsel for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty.” Indeed. Way back in 1972, the US Supreme Court had made it crystal clear in Branzburg v. Hayes that journalists have no 1^stAmendment right to scofflaw just because they are doing their supposed job and are subject to the same laws as every Tom, Dick & Harry. But Mr. Lemon probably never knew about let alone read the opinion. Time to throw out this defense attorney’s Lemon aid?

Davd Soul