Sunday, May 20, 2012

LA Republicans want to abolish our First Amendment rights

Intimidation Attempt to Public
May 20, 2012 12:10 pm

Rep. Abramson’s Failure
 by CB Forgotston
Rep. Neil Abramson, an otherwise intelligent attorney, has proposed a House Rule allegedly to prevent intimidation of leges. See HR 46 here.

What Abramson proposes is really an effort to intimidate the public and overrule our First Amendment Rights.


Here’s the abstract from the proposed rule:

Provides procedures for the House of Representatives to censure or discipline
nonmembers for behavior which constitutes an attempt by the nonmember to compel,
coerce, or intimidate the member with the intent to influence the member’s conduct in relation to his position or duty.

No rule needed
There are already laws on the books to deal with intimidation of public officials. See R.S. 14:122.2.

No definitions


There is no definition in Abramson’s proposed rule as to what constitutes “compelling”, “coercion” or “intimidation”. There’s a fine line between what a lege may consider compelling, coercion, intimidation and what others of us consider grass-roots lobbying.

It could easily be argued that any citizen, grass-roots lobbying group, blogger, talk radio host and certainly every paid lobbyists could be charged with trying to influence a member’s conduct. Even a newspaper editorial writer, columnist or reporter could be charged with trying to influence a lege.

Upon a written complaint by a lege, a citizen can be hauled before a lege committee, put under oath, questioned, and judged.  If the citizen is found guilty by the leges, they can be prevented from appearing before the lege.

Guilty as charged

I hereby plead guilty of attempting to influence the leges by compelling them to vote against HR 46.  -C.B.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, you are really a hater. Neil was actually threatened on the house floor - textbook extortion - but you attack Neil instead? Next time why don't you actually call him to find out what happened - or at least read the news coverage - instead of shooting from the hip. It's clear you have no respect for those who work hard to try and give Louisiana a better quality of life.

And, no, he was never beat up in high school. He was the well liked and kind to everyone, not that you have taken the time to find out.

And by the way, you don't have permission to use the photo from the State website. Please remove it,

Debbie Hollis said...

Anon,

First - kudos on not having the guts to post your name. Smooth move.

Second - I didn't write this article. I invite you to take an English 101 class, and learn how to read a citation.

Third - I have the right to post anything I want on my blog.

Love, Debbie