Missouri Senate Bill 818 Observations contained in an email message concerning this Bill were received from Rep. Cynthia Davis and are reproduced at the end of this message, following our RiteOn commentary.

COMMENTARY: In our opinion this Bill is simply another exercise in public “grandstanding” that will eventually be declared unconstitutional. Meanwhile, Sen. Rupp, Rep. Smith and those legislators who voted for this Bill are engaging in a legislative charade that is supposed to protect the innocent but in reality just creates another blizzard of paper that adds to the Lawyers and Judges Full Employment Act! One has to ask when legislators will begin to stand tall for the citizens and cease promoting nightmarish legislation designed to fool the citizens into thinking that they have affordable protection? In fact their entire act, especially this legislation, is more designed to get press coverage, create the impression that they are great “protectors” of the innocent, while their real interest lies in climbing the political ladder!

Our main objection to SB 818 is that it is, among other things, an attack on the Constitutional protections of free speech. It is a worthless and perhaps damaging piece of legislation that can be used in ways not envisioned by the public and perhaps not even by those who proposed and supported it. This legislation flies in the face of conservative principles and is typical of liberal legislation that seeks to extend the scope of government control of all things over all people! Those connected with this are obviously not conservatives or they would never support legislation so contrary to conservative principles! We will articulate additional views concerning this legislation in subsequent commentaries.

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The following observations concerning this legislation were received in an email from Rep. Cynthia Davis. We pass these on for your information.
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Concerning SB 818
There will be a time when bad people could use this law against us and we will wonder how such a bill could have been passed into law. Just Wednesday afternooon I was talking with the attorney for the Governor. I told him of my concerns and asked him if I was right or not and he said he agreed with me. This was passed on the last day of session with almost no debate. It was brought up and then the previous question was moved so there were no opportunities to even add amendments to it. Here is a copy of the letter I sent the governor. At least it will give you the general flavor of my concerns.
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Dear Governor Blunt, Thank you for the leadership you have demonstrated in guiding Missouri through these last four years. It has been a true pleasure to be in the legislature while you have been the governor. This session we passed some bills that I wish we had not and did not pass bills that I wish we had. I have two concerns over the legislative session that I would like to bring to your attention: SB818---Harassment. Please consider vetoing this. The new law seems dangerously close to hate speech regulation. While we all know that this is only a knee-jerk reaction to the Megan Meier story, it has the potential of hurting people it was never intended to harm. The bills says on page 8 lines 19-23 that a person commits the crime of harassment if he:

“Without good cause engages in any other act with the purpose 20 to frighten, intimidate, or cause emotional distress to another person, 21 cause such person to be frightened, intimidated, or emotionally 22 distressed, and such person's response to the act is one of a person of 23 average sensibilities considering the age of such person. 24 2.

What happens if someone says that homosexuality is wrong and it makes the other person feel intimidated or emotionally distressed? What if a pastor of a church says a person could spend eternity in hell and it makes the other person feel frightened, intimidated or emotionally distressed? I think this bill is poorly drafted because it does not offer enough protections to people who are exercising their freedom of speech. This bill is also very difficult to enforce because it is all based upon a subjective standard of how the prosecutor felt rather than specific actions. This law will not do one thing to bring Megan Meier back, yet it could cause great harm to people of moral convictions in future years if an ill-minded prosecutor desired to punish people who merely speak the truth. You would do Missouri a great favor if you would spare us of this new law by vetoing it and would become a champion of freedom for life. I know how busy you are, but I would appreciate an acknowledgement that you received and read my letter. In over three years you have been governor, I have rarely asked for your ear, but this time it is extremely important for me and all the citizens I represent.

Sincerely, Representative Cynthia Davis

Here is the link to the entire text of the bill: http://www.senate.mo.gov/08info/BTS_Web/Bill.aspx?SessionType=R&BillID=147
Please call me if you need any additional informatio