Maine Mural Removal Was Legal, Judge Says

Maine Sunday Telegram:

AUGUSTA - A federal judge ruled Friday that Gov. Paul LePage did not violate the free speech clause of the First Amendment when he ordered a mural removed from the headquarters of the Maine Department of Labor.

Read the whole story: Maine Sunday Telegram

Comments

[Leon Seebruck]

08:40 AM on 06/17/2011

unions are just mad because the public finely see's who the realy are.

[padrushka]

10:51 AM on 04/26/2011

"I have no problem with the mural. I just have a major, major issue with deception." me too paul! The utah case is not what i would call a good example of precedent but i am no judge. Seems lame to me.

[Leigh49]

12:46 PM on 04/25/2011

Pubs would remove their grandma if it pleased the master corporate donors.

[LouStool]

10:59 AM on 04/25/2011

I love Mr. Smiley in the back. That has to be photoshopped.

[Rondo]

10:41 AM on 04/25/2011

Conservatives should consider removing that Ten Commandments art display from the US Supreme Court

another case of art representing only one side of an issue

[LouStool]

10:59 AM on 04/25/2011

And don't the GOP go crazy when we refer to foreign laws in our courts? I don't remember the Big 10 being written in the USA.

[Rondo]

11:04 AM on 04/25/2011

Really?

All this time I thought they were written by Charleston Heston in Burbank, CA.

[freeus]

10:05 AM on 04/25/2011

Legal doesn't equal right. it was a ridiculous Ashcrost-style move that makes the remover seem 13.

[thoreau101]

10:28 AM on 04/25/2011

Judge Woodcock, a rabid GOP booster, in private practice until 2003, was (of course) picked by Bush 2.

[kkmousse]

11:50 AM on 04/25/2011

Yep another GOPer on the bandwagon.

[13champlain]

09:57 AM on 04/25/2011

the art sucked

[thoreau101]

10:29 AM on 04/25/2011

Art was never the issue. Using petty power to "show" the unions is the issue.

[KennebunkportIndependent]

11:27 AM on 04/25/2011

It was better than  a Mardens.  The worst store in the world.

[kkmousse]

11:52 AM on 04/25/2011

They are no better then Walmart. Pay just above minimum and offer insurance that is to costly to pay for , from their paychecks. I doubt that there is any upward mobility there either.

[pattiepcomedy]

09:32 AM on 04/25/2011

Funny how the First Amendment works ... for some ...
American moms and dads can have their dead hero soldier sons disrespected by a real small group of people and the judge says that's OK,

Our soldiers are coming under additional fire because of religious freedom First Amendment rights of one Florida pastor ... and the judge says that's OK.

Now one person says he gets an anonymous email that that is government speak ... and the judge says that's OK too - screw all the other people from Maine (except for the real rich ones who provide jobs - well where are the jobs?).

First Amendments rights is like the American justice system ... if you have enough money, you have First Amendment rights.

[kkmousse]

11:54 AM on 04/25/2011

Seem like most of the companies are foreign owned and they make sure their own people get the jobs.

[Soulsurfer]

09:15 AM on 04/25/2011

In a 45-page decision, Justice John Woodcock Jr. said that state-owned works of art are "government speech," and that political leaders are entitled to select the art that is displayed in state offices.

So it took this guy 45 pages to support his argument of "government speech"? Isn't that more than a little scary?

[MrStat1]

09:38 AM on 04/25/2011

Try reading the legal opinion he wrote first, then comment, OK!

[nypapajoe]

09:02 AM on 04/25/2011

It was a lost cause from the minute that the petition was filed! Just recall this Fool!

[KennebunkportIndependent]

11:29 AM on 04/25/2011

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[KennebunkportIndependent]

11:29 AM on 04/25/2011

Maine lacks a recall provision.

[kkmousse]

11:41 AM on 04/25/2011

I know, one of the legislators was trying to get a bill to provide for a recall provision. The GOP controlled committees tabled it. Even with term limits up here they just ignore that we have any. At least the Gov is limited to 2 terms and out.
Since I have moved up here in 2003 I have participated in quite a few Citizens Initiatives. They really do have a lot of them. Never used them in CT, so this is a new experience. Does give some power to the people. Like when the legislature passed a law to allow Gay Marriage. The people over turned it.
That is the only instints (I can think of) where they sent a message to the elected officials that they did not like what they were doing at the State House.
Too bad we can't use a Citizens Initiave to do a Recall vote!

[Alex Moschopoulos]

08:54 AM on 04/25/2011

Meh...easiest solution is to get the campaign strong to take LePage out of office.

Same with Wisconsin and other states doing anti-union things. If you have enough votes, then you make your point. If not, then either move away or take the lumps and move on.

[leftyirishwoman]

08:24 AM on 04/25/2011

LePage is the chief executive of Maine, and has the legal right to do all sorts of stupid things, like bringing back child labor. The contract with the artist and the DOJ is another matter.

Arizona is already seeing a tourism decline, and business leaders know it is due to their anti-brown people law. Does anyone know if a "boycott Maine" website exists so that lost tourist dollars may be tracked? Money is the only thing that will change conservatives minds.

Never bother trying to change the mind of someone like LePage. I understand he is from a large gamily of reduced means. For him to buy into this anti-people rhetoric, he had to willingly drink copious amounts of kool-aid.

[MrStat1]

09:39 AM on 04/25/2011

If Arizona is seing a tourism decline, why is it Arizona taxable sales rose 8.6% over last year?

[ktpinnacle]

10:20 AM on 04/25/2011

It isn't necessarily what you think.

http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/arizona/article_0d84b25e-6c78-11e0-9570-001cc4c03286.html

[KennebunkportIndependent]

11:32 AM on 04/25/2011

LePage, from a dirt poor family Francophone family of 19 from working class Lewsiton; hustling on the streets from the age of eleven; couldn't speak enough English to get into college at 19.

He has turned his back on his own background, and seeks to hurt those most who he left behind.

[HarpoSnarx]

11:54 AM on 04/25/2011

LeRage, like most of the 2010 TeaBagger class of elected officials LOVES to provoke.

Enjoyment of being hated isn't an ideology, it's a pathology. How long Mainers will tolerate it remains to be seen. But it does wear people out. Ask Margaret Thatcher or Poppy Seed Bush.

He'd better have his gubernatorial portrait done on sintra so it's easy to hose down.

[Grandma Koolfinger]

08:24 AM on 04/25/2011

From Maine.gov (May 2010:

"Tax-supported debt per capita is $760. The national median is $936. Tax-supported debt as a percentage of personal income is 2.2%. The national median is 2.5%."

Why is a state in debt paying anything for a mural? Why is the federal government paying anything for a mural

"While federal money covered part of the cost of the $60,000 mural, LePage said the state's share came from a surplus in unemployment insurance premiums paid by employers." Employers would be evil businessmen. What is it about governments that compel them to spend every dime they have, and then, usually, spend some more they don't have? Ants and grasshoppers.

[frank day]

08:55 AM on 04/25/2011

Really OT.
The mural exists and is paid for.
The question of spending on art is a topic for another thread.

[KennebunkportIndependent]

11:33 AM on 04/25/2011

A tad OT, but it all happened as a federal program under the Bush administration, so perhaps you should ask Bush that question.

[allengoldchain]

08:24 AM on 04/25/2011

ruling is pretty rational..but I am pretty sure that union leaders disagree. Why don't they buy off the mural and place it at their headquarters?

unions lose again.... the unions losing streak continues.

[ArchbishopBenevolent]

08:14 AM on 04/25/2011

Takes more of my trust in judges and the judicial system away. Looks like these folk are bought and paid for by the political parties and the corporations.