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Re: [dvd-discuss] ClearChannel Plays It Safe



Bryan Taylor <bryan_w_taylor@yahoo.com> wrote:

>
>Actually I'm a strong supporter of the 9th amendment. However I can't find
>anything in that amendment that says that an individual can just make up 
>things
>and call them a right. The 9th amendment jurisprudence is overly narrow, 
>IMHO,
>but you can't just claim the 9th amendment in response to any policy you 
>don't
>like.
>
>A good book on the balance between Judicial Review and democratic 
>government,
>with an excellent section on the Ninth Amendment is _Democracy and 
>Distrust, A
>Theory of Judicial Review_ by John Hart Ely. It's available in many 
>ordinary
>bookstores.
>
>However, if transmiting RF energy is a right, then why do we need the FCC 
>to
>regulate it? You should be able to jam anybody as the broadcasting 
>equivalent
>of shouting them down.

I didn't grab RF transmission as a right out of thin air! Freedom of
the press, speech, assembly imply it.  Having a right doesn't
necessarily mean "congress shall pass no law..." The right to a
speedy public criminal trial by jury is a good example - plenty of laws 
passed on this subject, some of them even abridging those
basic rights.

Your analogy of "shouting them down" is very apt.  Just as we can regulate 
against someone broadcasting their speech with 10^12 watts through 
loudspeakers, so too with RF energy. I frankly see no need for federal 
regulation except for reserving a few frequencies for military, emergency 
and governement use.  If a given locality accepts the concept of RF shouting 
over the whole city, county, whatever, they can grant permits for it just 
like they could for a network of bull horns.

Just out of curiosity could you list more than five rights granted by
the 9th amendment since you "support" it?



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