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two cents

In Reply to: The Cursing Canoeist posted by Jeff on June 24, 1999 at 12:42:36:

: I also believe his lawyer purposely lost the case so this rediculous law can be challenged in a court of appeals.

You're most likely right. Although I haven't read the breifs on this case yet, one of the most useful tactics in constitutional issues is to lose a case in a lower court so that it can be appealed in a higher court that has the authority to rule on the constitutionality of the law itself, as well as the supposed criminality of the specific incident.
This is fundamentally a first amendment issue (the U.S. constitution explicitly prohibits the states from restricting the freedom of speech) and the ACLU was wise to throw the case in a lower court so that it can be appealed, possibly in the U.S. Supreme Court. The law is blatantly unconstitutional and there is no way it can stand a test.
Another discussant in this thread suggested that the canoeist should be punished because, regardless of the validity of the law, he did break it, and is therefore a criminal. This is, in my opinion, pernicious nonsense. If the law, itself, is wrong and unjust, (as so many of them are,) we have not only a right, but a duty to break it. Only by challenging B.S. laws like this can we hope to get rid of them.

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