Captive audiences -- a possibly helpful thought experiment

[Rick Duncan]

I think Doug is right in emphasizing that the audience
is captive because the government has captured it. The
EC may limit the government's ability to impose
religious messages on members of a captive audience.
But why doesn't the Free Speech Clause (the right not
to speak, including a right not be made a captive
audience for the  government's message) protect a
captive audience against *any* objectionable message
the government imposes on captives? Let me ask you all
again: may the government round up a captive audience
at gunpoint and force it to view a pro-life video? If
not, why not? --Rick Duncan

--- Douglas Laycock <dlaycock at MAIL.LAW.UTEXAS.EDU>
wrote:
> <excerpt>Eugene says:
>
>
<fontfamily><param>Arial</param><color><param>0000,0000,8080</param>
>
> </color></fontfamily></excerpt><<<<<<<<
>
> <excerpt>
>
<fontfamily><param>Arial</param><color><param>0000,0000,8080</param>Whatever
> relevance the captive audience may have here, the
> relevance flows
> precisely from the fact that the government is
> acting here as proprietor,
> K-12 educator, and sponsor of the ceremony -- not
> simply from the fact
> that the audience is captive.
>
> </color></fontfamily></excerpt><<<<<<<<
>
>
>         I would put it a little differently; what
> distinguishes the public
> school captive audience is that the government
> captured it.  I lack
> Eugene's faith in the governmental/proprietary
> distinction, and I don't
> care whether government captures the audience by
> sponsoring a football
> game or sending out the army to round people up at
> gunpoint.
>
> <excerpt>
>
>
> </excerpt>
>
>
>
>
> Douglas Laycock
>
> University of Texas Law School
>
> 727 E. Dean Keeton St.
>
> Austin, TX  78705
>
>         512-232-1341 (phone)
>
>         512-471-6988 (fax)
>
>         dlaycock at mail.law.utexas.edu
>

=====
Rick Duncan
Welpton Professor of Law
University of Nebraska
College of Law
Lincoln, NE 68583-0902
(402)472-6044
(402)472-5185 FAX
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