original link: . http://www.kentuckynewera.com/cgi-bin/view.cgi?/200110/16+Free-speech-10-16-01_news.html+20011016+news
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Who will be the one to draw the line?
And, frankly, why must we have someone draw a line at all?
The issue is this: a small Ohio town requires a permit for people and organizations desiring to go door-to-door in its neighborhoods. On the surface, that sounds fair enough. The permits are free, no one has ever been turned down for one and officials argue that the procedure protects the city's residents "from fraud and undue annoyance in their homes."
Here's the rub: the Jehovah's Witnesses are saying that the procedure is violating their freedom of speech and that the 3-year-old law was, in fact, designed to limit their ministry, a faith that finds members routinely gong door-to-door, giving out free literature and recruiting new followers.
Ministers disdain the notion that their practice is on a constitutional par with peddlers of kitchen gadgets.
It is something that could happen in Hopkinsville, in Cadiz or in Elkton.
Since the law's passage, both sides have been in court – on the local level, in U.S. District Court and in the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
And now, the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear the appeal.
It's a contentious issue and the cheering sections on both sides will be loud: here are some classic freedom of speech arguments with separation of church and state issues thrown in on the side.
It should surprise no one that our own seat will be in the bleachers arguing for free speech. We know, however, the growing need for privacy and a community's need to protect its citizens from fraud and undue annoyance.
It promises to be an interesting fight.
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