Free speech, as protected by the First Amendment, is under attack here in Allen County.
According to Allen County Sheriff Bryan Murphy “several” individuals have complained to him of being personally threatened for displaying campaign signs in their yards.
No one has officially filed a complaint, Murphy said, because “they’re too scared.”
It is against the law to intimidate anyone because of their political beliefs. The same goes for withholding or canceling professional services because of one’s political stances.
The second instance was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1996 in a case titled Wabaunsee County v. Umbehr, when a trash collector in Wabaunsee County, Kansas, said his contract with the county had been terminated because of his openly critical stance of the performance of its commission.
The Justices agreed, saying governmental bodies cannot eliminate or threaten the loss of business on the basis of one’s publicly expressed opinions and that the very idea “may chill speech on matters of public concern.”
Certainly, if the Register felt threatened that its business with the county — printing its public notices and ballots — was in jeopardy because of our editorials, we would feel cornered.
Should we craft only pablum in order to ensure the county’s business?
The law says no and that, in fact, any such intimidation runs afoul of the U.S. Constitution.
KANSAS also has a tainted history when it comes to voter suppression.
Under Secretary of State Kris Kobach the state’s 2016 Spanish-language voter guides gave out the wrong information on how to register to vote and the deadline for registering.
The Spanish-language guide said voters could register up to 15 days before the election, while in fact it’s 21 days, and failed to say a passport meets the criteria as valid proof of identification.
Both errors, which work to suppress voter turnout, occurred only in the Spanish translation and not the English version.
