George,

You asked whether the resolution introduced by South Carolina Representative Catherine Ceips condemning the lead singer of the Dixie Chicks, Natalie Maines, was within the realm of free speech.

I am not sure if there has ever been a similar case to the facts of this situation so I am not sure what the answer would be. Bob may know of an actual case and therefore may be able to provide you with a definitive answer. If there is not a prior case on point, we are left to speculate as to what a court might say. There could be an argument that the resolution by itself, i.e. with no actual sanction or punishment-- is not an infringement of Maines' First Amendment rights. That being said, I believe that the resolution, if passed, would in fact be found by a court to be a violation of the First Amendment for much the same reason as your correspondent. It is one thing for elected representatives to express a view that a citizen is unpatriotic, it is quite another to pass a resolution on the matter. Such an action could severely chill the expression of Maines and any other citizen who wishes to publicly criticize elected officials.

Josh Wheeler (electronic mail, March 31 , 2003)

I have little to add to Josh's very helpful analysis. Obviously, on one hand, legislators too have First Amendment rights and may express their views on public issues without automatically abridging anyone else's free speech.  But where a government official speaks with the force or authority of office, or threatens (even implicitly) some governmental reprisal, or embodies his or her views in an official document such as a resolution, different concerns arise.  Thus when the President of CUNY said a decade or so ago about the extreme statements of a faculty member "those views have no place at City College" that
declaration was treated by the courts as an actionable threat to the faculty member's status and free speech, even though not coupled with any formal sanction.  I know of no case precisely on the issue you pose, though it is surely close to the line.

Bob O'Neil (electronic mail, April 1, 2003)

Editor's Note: Robert O'Neil is the Director for the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression. Joshua Wheeler is the Associate Director.

Each year on April 13th - the birthday of Thomas Jefferson - the center censures the censors by awarding the Jefferson Muzzles to those who in the past year forgot Mr. Jefferson's admonition that freedom of speech cannot be limited without being lost.