Not that there's anything unconstitutional about this ...

From this morning's Galveston Daily News:

BAYOU VISTA — Two Bayou Vista aldermen, who have been under fire for their support of cutting the salaries of some city employees, are asking a judge to stop some of their detractors from publicly criticizing them.
Aldermen Chris Gimenez and Bret Jamail say they've been the subject of “numerous threats and defamatory statements" on the Web site www.BayouVista.com. And, the story says, two residents have been putting up signs critical of the two aldermen, and calling on residents to boycott the aldermen's businesses.

Now, the First Amendment doesn't give people license to make physical threats on other people. That's not cool, and the courts have said so. But putting up signs critical of an alderman and his/her position on given issue? Asking your fellow citizens to boycott a business? Using the courts to stop people from criticizing you? Government officials who want to wield the power of their offices (even when that office is the post of alderman in Bayou Vista, Texas) but use the power of that same government to prevent people from criticing them about the decisions they make?

The paper says there's a hearing on the suit today. We'll be interested to see what happens.

(Picture by flickr user Mel B, used via the Creative Commons license.)

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