Word: weant
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...same magistrate, who had become aware of the blasphemy statute only a few months earlier, had' already fined at least three other men on similar charges. Supported by the American Civil Liberties Union, West decided to appeal. On the basis of his arguments, Circuit Court Judge Edward Weant Jr. has now ruled that Maryland's law is unconstitutional because it violates the free-speech and establishment-of-religion clauses of the First Amendment...
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...
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