David Blaska will not be denied his right of free speech
July 16, 2018
Board of Education
Madison Metropolitan School District
545 West Dayton Street, Room 110
Madison, WI 53703
board@madison.k12.wi.us
To the Madison Metropolitan School District Board of Education:
We represent Mr. David Blaska who is a Madison resident and concerned citizen with respect to issues affecting the Madison Metropolitan School District.
MMSD’s Education Resource Officer Ad Hoc Committee on educational resource officers is scheduled to convey its recommendation to the full Madison Metropolitan Board of Education by this August. We understand that a meeting to consider that recommendation is scheduled for this Wednesday, July 18, at 4:00 pm. Public appearances and comment will be permitted.
We commend the board and ad hoc committee for permitting public input. However, recent events suggest that a reminder with respect to how such appearances must be handled may be in order.
Our client intends to speak at the July 18, 2018, meeting. As you know, if a public body invites public comment, it cannot engage in viewpoint discrimination among those who wish to speak – even if other members of the public wish the public body to do so. At the last meeting of the ad hoc committee on Wednesday, June 20, other members of the audience heckled Mr. Blaska during his public comment and he was not allowed the full three minutes allotted him. An organized group of protestors interrupted his comments several times with signs and rehearsed chants such as “Silence white supremacy!” His ability to speak and be heard was finally halted completely by a loud and sustained chant: “Get Him Out! Get Him Out!”
A video of the disruption can be seen at https://youtu.be/Kdc4PR5ph_0.
We understand the difficulties that such uncivil behavior can present for a public body. But such difficulties cannot be used as a reason to silence and limit the speech of those whom the hecklers wish to veto. The Committee did not give Mr. Blaska the same uninterrupted three minutes that they gave to other speakers. Rather than demand that all voices be heard (only committee member Barbara McKinney Harrington did so), Chairman Loumos asked Mr. Blaska, “Can you just finish your comments?”
During the disruption, several committee members got up to leave, threatening a quorum. Chairman Loumos then called a five-minute recess. Upon reconvening, Chairman Loumos apologized to the disrupters for allowing Mr. Blaska to speak, and said that he had not realized Mr. Blaska would use “code words.”
Having reviewed Mr. Blaska’s comments, I am uncertain what “code words” Chairman Loumos is referring to and which Mr. Blaska is alleged to have spoken. But I am able to determine that Mr. Blaska’s comments were fully protected free speech. Chairman Loumos and other members of the committee are entitled to their opinions. But they may not silence a speaker – or encourage others to do so – based on the viewpoint he or she wishes to express. Such actions are not permitted by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution or Article I, Section 3 of the Wisconsin Constitution.
We trust that the Ad Hoc committee will allow all members of the public to speak at the July 18, 2018 meeting, and will do so without engaging in viewpoint discrimination or facilitating a “hecklers’ veto.”
Sincerely,
WISCONSIN INSTITUTE FOR LAW & LIBERTY, INC.
RICHARD M. ESENBERG
President & General Counsel
54 responses to “Madison school board is put on notice”
YOU GO DAVID
Bob Allen Territory Sales Manager AutoWares / Bumper to Bumper 262-994-4287
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Good for you!
Free speech.
Not complicated but impossible to understand by the extreme Left.
@Humble Squire;
Grabbing the Your Speech Is Violence/Our Violence Is Speech crowd by the short hairs; dig it!
If they squeak…pull HARD!!!
The Gotch
law breaker
Pay heed kiddies; THIS is why ALL keyboards ought have factory-equipped breathalyzers.
Were that the case, @richard lesiak would just be a garden variety Village Idiot instead of a staggeringly epic imbecile.
The Gotch
It’s quite proper to set expectations ahead of time.
Please video as much of your talk icluding a couple minutes before and after.
@ZoltarSpeaks!
“Please video as much of your talk including a couple minutes before and after.”
Just watch, some dumb f**k Lefty will try to smack any recording device out of a filmer’s hands because, welp, just because.
Sure wish youse, or someone like youse, would be there recording; I can just envision the look on the smacker’s face when they realize, deliciously too late, that maybe it wasn’t such a good idea after all.
The Gotch
Cornelius Gotchberg wrote, “Just watch, some dumb f**k Lefty will try to smack any recording device out of a filmer’s hands because, welp, just because.”
That can easily be considered assault.
Cornelius Gotchberg wrote, “Sure wish youse, or someone like youse, would be there recording; I can just envision the look on the smacker’s face when they realize, deliciously too late, that maybe it wasn’t such a good idea after all.”
Just not in the cards this time around. 🙁
You want SOMEONE else to knock a recorder from someone’s hands and then hope SOMEONE ELSE is there to record the event. Why aren’t you there? Why don’t you knock down the recorder? You always want SOMEONE ELSE to do the heavy lifting while you sit on your a#@. That’s MY point.
why not you doing it?
richard lesiak asked, “why not you doing it?”
The personal lives of fellow bloggers is none of your business.
@richard lesiak;
“why not you doing it?”
Why not you sober and doing intelligible English?
The Gotch
Squeaks and Gootch: such petty, personal invective and crude insults toward Richard. He must really threaten you two. Can you counter him without sounding like drunk middle schoolers?
@AnonyBob;
“such petty, personal invective and crude insults toward Richard.”
25 years in the legislature’ll do that to you’s.
”He must really threaten you two.”
Oh yeah, THAT’S it!
”Can you counter him without sounding like drunk middle schoolers?”
Say what??? His posts give truly deserving gibberish a bad name and we’re supposed to counter it.
Monkies & typewriter, yer up!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinite_monkey_theorem
The Gotch
I think David Blaska is a hero. Great letter from Esenberg. Let’s hope cooler heads prevail this time. Bloody cowards in this town, especially the pols and bureaucrats. “MMSD’s Education Resource Officer Ad Hoc Committee”…WTH…we are top heavy with administrator do-nothings bloviating about nothing and messing everything up.
Multiple video cameras showing how the committee and the crowd handle each public speaker would be completely appropriate. If I could attend and help video I would but I have previous obligations that prevent me from attending.
If the shout-down nonsense happens again, here’s a phrase to immediately direct towards the shout-downers…
You are abusing your free speech rights to silence my free speech. You are violating my civil rights and your actions have consequences.
..and then, here’s a phrase to direct towards the committee members…
The ineffective measures of this committee to maintain appropriate decorum and general civility in this meeting is directly enabling the infringement of my civil rights, your actions also have consequences.
If memory serves me correctly, everyone attending these kind of public meetings has to sign in with their name and at least a portion of their address. If the shout-down nonsense happens again and you don’t think the committee members appropriately addressed the problem to maintain decorum and general civility, immediately request a copy of the attendees, it’s public information. I’m absolutely positive that there are pro-bono places that can help you with what follows.
Hey Jeff Simpson, I know good and well you’re reading. How about you show everyone what a real advocate for equality and civil rights does when they are an ethical elected public official and confronted with civil rights abuse. Be one of the real adults in the room and on the committee that physically stand up for equality and the civil rights of a person that has an opinion that differs from your own. Of course if you’re afraid of what those ignorant social justice warrior shout-downers might do to you if you actually stood up for civil rights equality or if your pandering to the ignorant social justice warriors in your constituency feel free to just remain seated in the cowering position of ignorance and allow civil rights to be squashed by anti-Constitutional totalitarian fools. The choice is yours, choose wisely.
go and do it big mouth
richard lesiak wrote, “go and do it big mouth”
Why does an old bald dude like you troll like a 6th grader?
@ZoltarSpeaks!;
“Why does an old bald dude like you troll like a 6th grader?”
I believe an apology is in order…6th graders, intellectually light years ahead of @richard lesiak, don’t deserve to be associated with a bespawling moron.
The Gotch
still breaking those trademark laws I see.
Ha! The Squire stands his ground.
Mas cojones.
Outstanding Mr. David Blaska!! Well done!
Love to imagine the sanctimonious Madison liberals to whom your letter is addressed getting all red-faced and sputtering while reading it. One thing they never expect is pushback from those they browbeat, intimidate and attempt to silence. Thanks for showing them the error of their ways.
A legal question David:
Has Esenberg or anyone from WILL informed you of (available) specific legal recourse should your guaranteed right to free speech and peaceably assemble be infringed upon again?
Specifically in regard to the hecklers, and then Loumos and/or other ad hoc committee members?
Thanks
Keeping our arrows in our quiver.
___123___Madison school board is put on notice | Stately Blaska Manor___123___
These Social Justice a$$holes are evidently clueless what the words racist and white supremacist mean as evidence by their consistent misuse.
These haters of free speech and right to peaceably assemble are screeching nasty bullies possessed with such an enormous sense of righteousness that any expressed different opinion is automatically unprotected speech worthy of suppression.
They are an extension of Antifa. They are leveraging Lefty white guilt.
Here is the First Amendment for any ignorant SJW reading this blog:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
what the words racist and white supremacist mean? BATMAN
Good work Dave! Go for it.
Suck it, Commies!
Settle down. Trump’s best friends are commies.
So he stopped being a Nazi? Better tell ABob. It’ll come as a shock.
Nah, he’s not a Nazi – or a commie. He’s just owned by them (why do you think he won’t release his tax returns – because he’s modest?). He’s a nothing. Nothing but a fool and a tool of our enemies. And you guys love the traitor-in-chief.
Putin’s Poodle.