Dear Editor,
Ms. Stone, interesting take on the 1st Amendment. You support far-left so called journalist Don Lemon for barging in a church service with paid radical left protesters assuming the pastor was an employee of ICE.
Whether he is or not doesn’t matter. At that moment he was preaching the word of God to members of his church. What about the worshipers of God’s rights? What about the pastor’s right to freely preach the word of God to his church members without harassment?
You seem to have this backwards. Communists are against religion and free speech. Look in the mirror. Whose side are you on?
Jack Goyeneche
Thank you for your note. I think it’s important to separate two different issues here.
First, no one is disputing the rights of the pastor or the congregation. Freedom of religion is fully protected under the First Amendment, and it should be. But freedom of the press is also protected — and those protections don’t disappear because a reporter is covering a controversial protest. The question in this case is not whether worshipers have rights (they absolutely do), but whether the government can arrest a journalist simply for documenting what was happening.
Second, the Constitution doesn’t sort rights by political preference. It doesn’t say freedom of the press applies only to journalists we personally agree with. It applies to all of them, because that’s how a free society keeps government power in check.
You and I may see the situation differently, but defending the First Amendment isn’t “taking sides” with any ideology. It’s taking the side of the Constitution. If the government can arrest one reporter for doing his job, it can arrest any reporter — and that should concern all of us, regardless of politics.
A witness to the event told the court that Don was an integral part of the planning, timing, & participation.