Bombardment on free speech and assembly hurts us all
Something is wrong in Suffield. First Selectman Colin Moll wants to exempt the Town Green from First Amendment rights to free speech and assembly.
Moll has proposed extensive rules to regulate activity on the town’s centuries old public Green. Moll told the Courant in a statement on Jan. 19, “At no point does this policy infringe on any First Amendment rights.” Moll must not have read his own revolting proposal, let alone the amendment that is the cornerstone of our democracy.
The policy “is designed to better protect the Town and its assets,” Moll continued. “Anybody can use the Town Green. A policy would simply give guidelines for use.” Our First Amendment rights are first for a reason. They are the rights from which all others flow. Moll has proposed requirements, not guidelines.
Moll’s notion of freedom to assemble includes obtaining permits from his office 30 days before an event and securing $1 million in liability insurance to cover the event. A permit will not be automatically granted. Oh no, there are rules the first selectman will apply in his discretion. “The proposed activity event, and/ or display will not unreasonably interfere with or detract from the promotion of public health, welfare, safety and recreation.” It must not incite violence or crime or disorderly conduct. Maybe it would allow silent vigils, but not if they disrupted traffic, another Moll burden on Constitutional rights.
The Suffield War Memorial lists 257 local residents who served in the Revolutionary War, from David, Joel and John Adams Jr. to Justus, Phineas and Reuben Woolworth. They fought for freedom. They did not leave whatever rudimentary comforts they knew to risk or give their lives in that glorious cause so that nearly 250 years later the town’s selectmen could enact rules to silence speech and ban the assembly of citizens.
The War Memorial inspires from its honored place on the
Town Green.
Moll is making a name for himself as more than a tiresome crank. He tried out his heavy hand last year on Suffield’s Kent Memorial Library. Two directors resigned in a year. Other employees quit. Moll wanted to know who was reserving rooms for meetings at the library. He had a beef with a library “kindness display” that included a children’s book on pronouns.
Moll and his fellow Republicans refused to reappoint four Democrats to the library board. The Suffield Republicans are not only unmindful of freedom of speech rights, they are jaw-dropping ignoramuses. Last fall, one Republican selectman candidate made the nonsensical argument that the kindness display violated the public’s First Amendment rights. And now they have widened their war with Moll’s blitzkrieg against free speech on the Town Green.
Last month Moll’s proposal came to the attention of the sentinels of freedom at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE). It describes itself as “a nonpartisan nonprofit [organization] dedicated to defending freedom of speech.” In a Feb. 15 letter to Moll and his colleagues, Aaron Terr, FIRE’s Director of Public Advocacy, explained in six pages why Suffield would be violating the Constitution if it continued on its path of silencing residents and others.
As other organizations go wobbly on the paramount importance of free speech, FIRE has become its preeminent defender. It began as an advocate for free speech on college campuses and has broadened its mission to places like suffocating Suffield.
Suffield’s proposed regulations, according to FIRE’s Terr, could restrict activity “from an acoustic guitarist to a book club meeting, from a 10-person protest to a lone pamphleteer.” The Suffield Town Green has long been a place, as the Supreme Court describes them, “for assembly, communicating thoughts between citizens, and discussing public questions.”
Moll’s 30-day application requirement is an exercise in eliminating spontaneous speech. If next week, Hamas was destroyed and Palestinians in Gaza were liberated from its brutal rule or the Houthis were defeated and the children it forces to become soldiers were freed, it would be cause for celebration across much of the world. People in Suffield might want to gather immediately to rejoice. Under Moll’s rules, they could not assemble on the Town Green.
Unpopular speech requires protection from the mob, and our Constitution provides it. Moll’s bombardment of free speech and assembly is especially dangerous for speech that is out of favor. He provides the dreaded heckler’s veto to those expressing hostility to some points of view. Loudmouthed locals intent on disrupting a protest on the Town Green would become an excuse for the selectman to ban a gathering. The selectman would be on the wrong side.
Free market capitalism has been very good indeed to tony Suffield. Moll would ban, Terr points out, “activities, events, and displays ‘designed to be held for private profit.’” This would ban, for example, someone being paid to speak and the sale of books, pamphlets and newspapers at an event.
One day Suffield selectmen may require you to show your papers in order to enter the town with leaders who hate our freedom. If they do, remember that it started in the library and on the Town Green.