Ok, I'll bite. Why is an anti-coercion statute obviously unconstitutional?
Marci On Jan 24, 2012, at 4:45 PM, "Volokh, Eugene" <vol...@law.ucla.edu> wrote: > An Arkansas 1891 statute: “No person shall coerce, intimidate or unduly > influence, any elector to vote for or against the nominee of any political > party, or for or against any particular question or candidate, by any threat > or warning of personal violence or injury, or by any threat or warning of > ejectment from rented or leased premises, or by the foreclosure of any > mortgage or deed of trust, or of any action at law or equity, or of discharge > from employment, or of expulsion from membership in any church, lodge, secret > order or benevolent society, or by any oath, or affirmation or secret written > pledge.” I assume such a statute, as applied to churches, would be > unconstitutional today, and might even have generally been seen as > unconstitutional back then, though I have seen no cases interpreting it. > > Interestingly, a North Carolina statute that didn’t mention churches -- “Any > person who shall discharge from employment, withdraw patronage from, or > otherwise injure, threaten, oppress or attempt to intimidate any qualified > voter of the state, because of the vote such voter may or may not have cast > in any election, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor” -- was held in 1901 to not > be able applicable to expulsion from churches based on a person’s vote. See > State v. Rogers, 38 S.E. 34 (N.C. 1901), > http://volokh.com/2012/01/23/interesting-old-prosecution-for-expelling-someone-from-a-church-based-on-how-he-voted/ > . > > Eugene > > _______________________________________________ > To post, send message to Religionlaw@lists.ucla.edu > To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see > http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/religionlaw > > Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be viewed as > private. Anyone can subscribe to the list and read messages that are posted; > people can read the Web archives; and list members can (rightly or wrongly) > forward the messages to others.
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