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Gwen's Spot

08 March 2006

Leftover Laws: In Which Gwen Falls Through A Hole In Time And Ends Up In The McCarthy Era

So, either nobody in the Arizona State Legislature has seen this, or we're about fifty+ years in the past:

Arizona Revised Statute 16-806. "Proscription of Communist Party of United States, its successors, and subsidiary organizations
The Communist Party of the United States, or any successors of such party regardless of the assumed name, the object of which is to overthrow by force or violence the government of the United States, or the government of the state of Arizona, or its political subdivisions shall not be entitled to be recognized or certified as a political party under the laws of the state of Arizona and shall not be entitled to any of the privileges, rights or immunities attendant upon legal political bodies recognized under the laws of the state of Arizona, or any political subdivision thereof; whatever rights, privileges or immunities shall have heretofore been granted to said Communist Party of the United States as defined in this section, or to any of its subsidiary organizations, by reason of the laws of the state of Arizona, or of any political subdivision thereof, are hereby terminated and shall be void."

(Note that the Arizona State Constitution says, in Article 2, Section 21, that "Free and equal elections All elections shall be free and equal, and no power, civil or military, shall at any time interfere to prevent the free exercise of the right of suffrage." Now, doesn't declaring that the CPUSA doesn't have any of the rights any other political body has kinda interfereing with the free exercise of the right of suffrage? Not to mention, y'know, freedom of association and such?)

Next we have a law pertaining to employers firing their employees based on political ideology, religion, or philosophy, which includes the following interesting caveat:
"H. As used in this article, unlawful employment practice does not include any action or measure taken by an employer, labor organization, joint labor-management committee or employment agency with respect to an individual who is a member of the communist party of the United States or of any other organization required to register as a communist-action or communist-front organization by final order of the subversive activities control board pursuant to the subversive activities control act of 1950."

I don't know, but I'll bet that the subversive activities control act has either
a) been repealed
b) been changed considerably
c) declared unconstitutional
. You think?

Next and longest is at http://www.azleg.state.az.us/ars/16/00805.htm , and basically says a bunch of things about "those d--- commies" that are patently untrue and a bunch of hyperbole anyway, plus are even more untrue because the apparently-nonexistent CPUSA Constitution (http://www.cpusa.org/article/static/15/) definitely states a lot of things about being thrown out for advocating violent overthrow, expression of dissent, democratic processes, et cetera that do not, collectively, describe the party described in this so-called "findings of fact."

Then again, I was talking to someone about this, and she thought that it was just fine, even today, and in fact should be widened to affect lots of different groups. You have to draw the line somewhere, apparently, and if free expression, association, et cetera are cut out of the picture so be it.
I'm curious as to how many states still have these laws. Is America red, blue, or Red?

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