Today at 11am, the FSP will be holding a press conference in Manchester to announce the good news. I’ll be there and do my best to tweet it live here via the Free Keene Twitter:
In the Summer of 2015, Heidi Lilley and B. Liz MacKinnon were ticketed on Gilford beach in alleged violation of the town’s ordinances. In late December, they went to trial at Laconia district court and Free State Project early mover and attorney Dan Hynes put on an excellent defense. Judge James M. Carroll took the case under advisement and has now issued his six-page order: both cases are dismissed!
Don’t get too excited. If you read the order, you’ll find that Judge Carroll is no hero of constitutional rights or equality. Page three of his order ridiculously cites the private Motion Picture Association of America’s ratings system as evidence of a supposed “societal desire” to regulate female toplessness. Carroll argues that because the state’s three prudish witnesses (the three snitches) don’t appreciate female toplessness and because the town gave notice of the existence of the ordinance, that somehow means the town ordinance doesn’t violate the Equal Protection Clause of the US Constitution or Article 1 of the NH Constitution’s Bill of Rights.
Given that Article 1 only mentions men when it says, “All men are born equally free and independent”, is it Judge Carroll’s opinion that only men were born free and that women can be told what to wear, for the good of “society”? He’s not foolish enough to come right out and say that, but his order does make excuse after outrageous excuse for the town’s ordinance, claiming it’s constitutionally sound:
The township’s compelling interest is met in maintaining the beach as a natural resource to be enjoyed by young and old , men and women, families and single persons while preserving appropriate standards that allow the township to maintain their local values and mores…The Court does not find that the prohibition violates any constitutionally protected right…the movement “does not have ‘a right to impose one’s lifestyle on other who have an equal right to be left alone.
Topless Tuesday, Keene’s Central Square, 2010
So, if the social mores were that all women must wear burqas, because seeing any skin at all bothered people, it sounds like Carroll would consider that mandate constitutional as well.
Though Carroll defends the right to marry either gender, he says that such marriage is a protected right, while toplessness is not. On the final page, he claims the toplessness in this case had no artistic value, while on page three he acknowledges the female nipple “has been the subject of great beauty in art”. Apparently Carroll is an art critic now, too.
Ultimately, Carroll decides the case in the favor of the defendants, but not on the excellent constitutional or equal protection arguments made by attorney Hynes, but simply on a technicality of the system: (more…)
The original piece in Mother Jones in 2011 was written by Tim Murphy and called Keene activism a “hybrid of Gandhi and Project Mayhem”. I was impressed with Mother Jones – they actually had a fact checking person call me separate from the reporter to verify the facts in Murphy’s submitted piece. It was a well-researched piece.
The new piece, published today overviews the project and interviews several participants moved and yet-to-move. Check it out!
It’s been fifteen years in the making – the official move for the Free State Project will be kicking off this week! With fewer than 150 signers to go, the FSP has reached 99% of its goal of convincing 20,000 liberty-loving people to move to New Hampshire and get active.
Once 20,000 is reached this week, the early mover phase ends and the official move begins. The 20k will have a five year window to get here and get active.
I’ve you wanted to wait until the last minute to see if we’d make the goal, it’s now the last minute. It’s clear now at around 50 signers per day, the FSP is happening! Don’t miss out on helping make history. If you love liberty, you should join the Free State Project now and start planning your move!
If you thought the activism here was awesome and record-setting, you are right, but just wait until thousands more join us! The fun has just gotten started. As shown clearly in the excellent documentary, “101 Reasons Liberty Lives in New Hampshire“, we have a liberty community unlike anywhere else in the world.
Questions still remain. What will happen to the FSP organization after the 20k goal is reached? Will they continue to recruit signers past the goal? Will the organization dissolve after five years? Stay tuned here to Free Keene for the latest on the coming mass migration of liberty activists to the Shire.
Elizabeth Edwards is a Free State Project early mover and elected democrat state representative who has heroically put forth the only proposed repeal of the prohibition on prostitution that I’ve heard of in my near-decade here in New Hampshire.
Were HB 1614 to pass, adults in NH would be able to trade sex for money without fear of arrest, prosecution, and jail. It does NOT create a regulatory structure (legalization) it just strikes the statutes criminalizing prostitution, and keeps in place prohibition on sex slavery.
It’s an excellent bill and surprisingly, everyone who testified on it, testified in favor. However, the cowardly chiefs of police did submit written testimony against it. Here’s full video of the press conference and the hearing in front of the Criminal Justice committee:
Will the bill have a chance the first year out? Probably not, but kudos to representative Edwards for putting it up for consideration. This is a conversation that people need to have at the state house about economic freedom and self-ownership. Stay tuned here to Free Keene for the latest.
If you want to help move forward pro-liberty political change here, please join the New Hampshire Liberty Alliance, whether you are in NH or not – you can help.
