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California’s unequal treatment of canvassers is a First Amendment violation
Election season is heating up big time in California. Candidates are running advertisements on television, announcing their positions in newspapers, and doing both on social media. But unlike previous elections, they cannot utilize one of the most tried-and-true methods of connecting personally with voters: canvassing.
Akin to door-to-door salespersons, political canvassers rely on the power of conversation and the free exchange of ideas, rather than their pocketbooks, to motivate action at the ballot box.
Our friends at the Institute for Free Speech explain how changes to the state’s employment law give a pass to selling goods door-to-door, but outlaw the sale of ideas.
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Federal tire-chalking case to answer big constitutional questions
When attorneys Phil Ellison and Matt Gronda saw a meter maid chalking someone’s car tire outside a Saginaw, Michigan, courthouse, they decided to make a federal case of it. After all, a car is private property, they reasoned, and leaving a chalk-line on it to find out if it moves is a “search.”
In 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court came to the same conclusion in ruling on a case dealing with the attachment of a GPS device to a vehicle. Without a warrant, the Court said, this practice is unconstitutional.
Daniel Woislaw writes that while the chalking case might seem like small potatoes, much more is at risk if the courts accept the government’s argument that enforcing a highly regulated activity like parking doesn’t need a warrant.
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