At 11:00 AM 03/18/1997 -0500, Flanders, Leslie - Tech. Coord wrote
>I would be very interested in hearing opinions from the State Attorney
>General's office on this. I don't understand what I'm reading hear and
>I'd like to have some statements that could be understood by teachers
>and parents that would apply to student and employee use of the Internet
>in public schools via a state owned network. Would anyone else find that
>useful? Is anyone listening who could facilitate that?
>
>Leslie
>
>Leslie J. Flanders
>Director of Technology
>Scott County Schools
>Georgetown, Kentucky
 ^^^^^^^^^^
<snip article>
>>                              authors:
>>
>>             Larry Lessig    David Post    Eugene Volokh

David Post is an instructor at Georgetown Law; I just thought it was an
interesting coincidence. ;)

NOTE: I am not a lawyer. This is not legal advice or a legal opinion.

        Anyway, what the article discusses is that the First Amendment is not some
over-arching "you can't keep me from talking" law. The intent of the
Framers of the Constitution was to prevent the *government* from
restricting the speech of individuals, as governments are wont to do when
they start imposing more restrictive laws and exerting their power (think
Stalin in the '50's).
        The First Amendment does NOT mean that nobody can keep anyone else from
speaking. Simply that the government (or its agents) cannot restrict your
speech. If you visit my house, I can certainly ask you not to use
profanity, and if you continue, I can certainly eject you for that reason.
You would have no First Amendment right of action against me.
        A mailing list is like the list owner's house- his rules, he controls who
can stay and who must go.

        Another analogy would be a classroom at a public college- the school can
certainly control the speech of those in the classroom for the purpose of
enabling the reason the classroom exists. By entering the college, you are
submitting yourself to the college's rules. Ditto the list: by entering,
you submit yourself to the list's rules. If you don't like the rules, you
are welcome to go elsewhere or even to create your own list.

Does that help?

Philo
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