H.R. 1388: Obama’s Youth Brigade Conscripts Would Be Prohibited from “Organizing or Engaging in Protests” or Participating in a Variety of Religious Activities
March 24th, 2009Will the uniform include an armband?
Via: GovTrack:
SEC. 1304. PROHIBITED ACTIVITIES AND INELIGIBLE ORGANIZATIONS.
Section 125 (42 U.S.C. 12575) is amended to read as follows:
‘SEC. 125. PROHIBITED ACTIVITIES AND INELIGIBLE ORGANIZATIONS.
‘(a) Prohibited Activities- A participant in an approved national service position under this subtitle may not engage in the following activities:
‘(1) Attempting to influence legislation.
‘(2) Organizing or engaging in protests, petitions, boycotts, or strikes.
…
‘(7) Engaging in religious instruction, conducting worship services, providing instruction as part of a program that includes mandatory religious instruction or worship, constructing or operating facilities devoted to religious instruction or worship, maintaining facilities primarily or inherently devoted to religious instruction or worship, or engaging in any form of religious proselytization.
Interesting factoid about the link you posted to the legislation: this version omits the happy little morsel — included in the previous version — regarding “whether a workable, fair and reasonable mandatory service requirement for all able young people could be developed and how such a requirement could be implemented in a manner that would strengthen the social fabric of the nation.” Why? Because those of us who can still think objected to it. Does it mean they’re no longer considering making mandatory. Gee, I wonder…
Well, that ain’t constitutional. That would be a flagrant violation of freedom of speech, association, and religious rights. Political and religious activity, in theory, receives extremely high protection from the 1st Amendment. I can’t imagine that this provision will be allowed to pass.
I’ve seen this posted around and clicked through and read a bit of it. I have not read the whole bill, so I could be totally wrong, but it reads to me that these prohibited behaviors are prohibited regarding the participant’s actions regarding their participation in national service positions.
As an example, I think that this section would preclude someone from arguing that participation in “Youth for Ron Paul” could qualify as an approved national service position.
I’m no lawyer, but I suspect that this set of qualifications is to describe behavior prohibited within the context of “approved national service positions”, not to describe behavior prohibited to the individual in their personal life outside of the context of “approved national service positions”.
But, like I said, I’m no lawyer. I’m a meat Popsicle
I reviewed this bill with a friend, and it seems that the amendments to Section 125 are addressing organizations involved in training and technical assistance, not individuals. The mandatory service issue is real, but this particular portion of the bill is being blown out of proportion. Shame.