Word: laws
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Saviour Jesus Christ, or of and concerning the Trinity, or any of the persons thereof." Similar statutes exist in half the states in the U.S. Most of them can be traced back to England and the 17th century, when penalties were harsh. In an early Maryland version of the law, first offenders had a hole bored through their tongues with a hot iron, second-timers had a "B" branded into their foreheads and anyone foolhardy enough to be caught the third time suffered death without benefit of clergy. The Maryland legislature had an opportunity to do away with the current...
Arguing in favor of the statute, the state contended that blasphemy is no longer religious in nature but is a violation of decency in a secular sense. Judge Weant was not swayed. Secular or not, Weant said, the law violated the right to free speech. Nor did blasphemy seem to him to be merely secular when most authorities "tacitly admit that it is a crime only because it occurs in a land where the Christian religion is prevalent." In light of recent Supreme Court decisions, Weant concluded that "any law, including blasphemy, which seeks to protect any form of religion...
...These are our rules. We want you to take over and enforce them for us because we are, in effect, incapable of doing so." The universities are naturally reluctant to make their campuses wards of the court, but they are well aware that the judges have greater experience at law enforcement, and have the further advantage of not being directly involved in the conflict between students and the university...
Parallel Anger. Some student leaders hope to turn the weapon against their adversaries. Warning that the injunction can be a "two-edged sword," Phil Ryan, a student at Howard Law School, says: "Some of us are thinking of enjoining the use of police on campus." At Stanford, students are challenging the injunction in court because they were given no notice of the action to be taken against them. They may well have a case. In a recent decision, the Supreme Court held a similar proceeding invalid...
...campus. "I don't believe that a writ is a magic talisman that will ward off all devils," says Columbia Historian Walter Metzger, a specialist on academic freedom. "There has got to be some imagination and a very sophisticated armory of responses, including negotiation and dialogue." Law Professor Gerald Gunther of Stanford argues that it is better to bring the courts into campus confrontations than to summon police in the first instance. "I believe that there may be greater respect for the court as a symbol of law and order than for the police or university administrators," says Gunther...