The GOP are after journalist with a vengeance

Angered by gun control, this lawmaker drafted a bill to require licenses for journalists

A state lawmaker in Indiana has drafted a measure to require licenses for journalists akin to those that pertain to handgun owners, a proposal legal experts says directly violates the First Amendment.

The measure would require journalists — defined as anyone writing or broadcasting news for a newspaper, magazine, website or television or radio station — to be registered and fingerprinted by the police and vetted for their “character and reputation.”

State Rep. Jim Lucas, a Republican from the southeastern part of Indiana and a vocal critic of his state’s gun restrictions, drafted the bill by copying language from a state law that requires a license to carry a handgun in public.

With these laws proposed for journalists, Lucas's measure reads like satire.

Committing journalism without a license within 500 feet of school or on a school bus would bump the penalty up from a misdemeanor to a felony. Journalists with felony or domestic battery convictions would be prevented from getting licenses. And unlicensed people would still be able to engage in journalism on property they own or rent.

The proposal has not been submitted. And though Lucas says the measure was drafted in part to point out what he views as the hypocrisy of gun regulations, he would not rule out introducing the proposal in the state legislature in the future.

“I'm going to see,” he told The Washington Post on Friday.

First Amendment experts said the proposal — first reported by the Indianapolis Star — has no chance of surviving a court challenge, should it ever be introduced, then passed.

“It’s an absolute nonstarter,” said Burt Neuborne, a New York University law professor and a civil liberties expert. “The whole reason for the free press clause was to abolish licensing rules for the press.”

Neuborne added: “Maybe we should license state legislators.”

Lucas's proposal comes amid heightened political tensions around the First Amendment.

President Trump, who has demonized the news media as “the enemy of the American People,” alarmed free-speech advocates this week by writing on Twitter that NBC News should be punished by regulators after the organization published a report that he did not like.

By Eli Rosenberg October 13 at 2:17 PM
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/10/13/angered-by-gun-control-this-lawmaker-drafted-a-bill-to-require-licenses-for-journalists/?tid=sm_fb&utm_term=.cf74fc28514d