Lawton Politics

In this country we are granted many rights endowed by our creator, and those granted to us by our Constitution and its Amendments. Our founding fathers, granted our government many powers in the body of our constitution. Powers that are included but not limited to the power to tax, the power to regulate interstate commerce, and the power to declare war. However, our founders with the first five words of the first amendment to our constitution limited their power
"Congress shall make no law..." [1]

The banner of this website reflects this. "Congress shall make no law... Abridging the freedom of speech." [2] This website will continue to protect the rights of all citizens of this country who wish to participate.

In the history of our country and of the world, certain guidelines have been established with respect to anonymous speech. Among these guidelines are that anonymous speech is still protected speech, under our Constitution.

Beginning in ancient times fear of political retaliations, false imprisonment, fear of torture and death forced many writers and thinkers into going along with "party lines" that is to say that they did not speak out about atrocities that have been committed by those who are in power.

Sometime about c. 550 an anonymous author going by the title of "The Historian" [3] published a work that was extremely critical of the rulers Justinian and Theodora.

Of course not limiting our scope of evidence to the ancient history several presidents of our great nation have at times used pen names as well. The Federalist Papers were a series of articles written under the pen name of Publius by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay. Madison, widely recognized as the Father of the Constitution, would later go on to become President of the United States. Jay would become the first Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court. Hamilton would serve in the Cabinet and become a major force in setting economic policy for the US. [4]

Just as we have our critics, so to did the Authors of the Federalist Papers. Also using a pen name, "the Federal Farmer" [5] took advantage of anonymity in their decent.

In modern times, the United States Supreme Court in 1995 reaffirmed first amendment protection of anonymous speech in McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Commission.[6]

"Protections for anonymous speech are vital to democratic discourse. Allowing dissenters to shield their identities frees them to express critical, minority views . . . Anonymity is a shield from the tyranny of the majority. . . . It thus exemplifies the purpose behind the Bill of Rights, and of the First Amendment in particular: to protect unpopular individuals from retaliation . . . at the hand of an intolerant society" [7]

Since all post on this website are created from an account, no post in our opinion is unsigned. Since e-mails are linked to the account we further do not consider these to be unsigned. We base this on the fact that a response can be sent to the author, and that included in various log files and headers, contains information concerning the author.

"If, however, the purpose is to perpetuate lies in a public forum, then I may concider the poster liken to the author of an unsigned letter." [8]

We have not been shown any evidence that suggest that the posts on this site are not based on fact. A simple solution would be to respond to the questions asked and to provide evidence that supports your arguments. Hiding behind the guise of anonymity is protected speech. Not answering questions of public interest in e-mails or public forums tends to give the appearance of impropriety especially if comments come from a government official.

Further in our current political system anonymous speech is recognized in all fifty states, territories and the District of Columbia as the power to make an informed choice. In our electoral system, voting is anonymous and as such the silent outcry of reform takes place is a testament to the importance of anonymity.

With respect to all interested parties, and in keeping with the traditions of James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson and John Jay, we submit this for your review.

The Deputy

[1] Amendment I, The U.S. bill of Rights
http://www.archives.gov/national-archives-experience/charters/bill_of_rights_transcript.html

[2] Id.

[3] Procopius of Caesarea http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/procop-anec.html

[4] http://www.law.ou.edu/hist/federalist/

[5] Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)
http://www.eff.org/Privacy/Anonymity/

[6] McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Commission
http://straylight.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/93-986.ZO.html

[7] EFF
http://www.eff.org/Privacy/Anonymity/

[8] Comments made by Jason Whitehorn, http://lawtonpolitics.com/node/73#comment-140