X

9th Circus Rules in Favor of “The Offended”

by Rush Limbaugh - Apr 21,2006

RUSH: Now, get this story. This is the Ninth Circus Court of Appeals. Public schools in California can bar clothing with slogans that are hurtful. The Ninth Circus ruled this yesterday. This is in the case of a student who wore a T-shirt saying homosexuality is shameful. “The 2-1 decision by a three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals backed a San Diego-area high school’s argument that it was entitled to tell a student to remove a T-shirt with that message. The officials were concerned the slogan could raise tension at the school, where there had been conflict between gay and straight students. The student sued, claiming the school’s dress code violated his free speech, religious freedom and due process rights. Writing for the panel’s majority, Judge Stephen Reinhardt–” Now this guy, folks, this guy is way, way out there to the left. His wife is Ramona Ripston. She’s been on TV a number of times. She’s an ACLU chick. Can you imagine life at these two people’s house?

I think of these liberals, I just think of them living their private lives and what they must do behind closed doors. You know it isn’t fun. You know they’re just sitting there wringing their hands and worried about the fate of communism and what will we do reenergize it and so forth. I do. I share these innermost thoughts with you. I think of these libs behind closed doors and the last thing I see them doing is enjoying life. I see them fretting all the time. Anyway, “Reinhardt affirmed a lower court’s decision against an injunction against the school and said schools may bar slogans believed to be hurtful. Students ‘who may be injured by verbal assaults on the basis of a core identifying characteristic such as race, religion, or sexual orientation, have a right to be free from such attacks while on school campuses,’ Reinhardt wrote.

‘The demeaning of young gay and lesbian students in a school environment is detrimental not only to their psychological health and well-being, but also to their educational development,’ Reinhardt added. In his dissent, Judge Alex Kozinski said the majority would gag campus dissent to Poway High School’s policies. ‘The types of speech that could be banned by the school authorities under the Poway High School hate policy are practically without limit. Any speech code that has at its heart avoiding offense to others gives anyone with a thin skin a heckler’s veto – something the Supreme Court has not approved in the past,’ Kozinski wrote.”

This is exactly right. Now, you people wondering, “Why are we spending so much time on this, Rush?” I’ve dealt with this my entire broadcast career. You know, and I’m not advocating this particular T-shirt here, homosexuality is shameful, that’s not the point. The point is, like Mr. Snerdley and I talking about this story today. He said, “Well, who gets to sit there and decide what’s hurtful?” And I said, “The hurt.” So we’re going to have a new group. We already have the offended. If you go back to the archives of this program I have told you who the offended are. There’s a professional business, the offended are political correctness aficionados, and they shut things up that they don’t want to hear by claiming that it offends them. And this is the way the minority reaches out and gags the majority.

Judge Kozinski is exactly right here. You know my theory on being offended, nobody has the power to make me feel offended, it’s up to me. I don’t get offended, folks. I really don’t get offended. I have not only a thick skin, but I’m not going to let somebody have that kind of power. Can you imagine being such an emotional vegetable that you go through life and you’re just scared to hear anything because it might offend you? What kind of life is that?

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

By the way, we now know that hurtful speech has been banned by the Ninth Circuit. You can’t hurt anybody when you say anything. Folks, do you understand how that’s going to shut everybody up if this spreads? I mean, “You can’t say that, it offends me. You hurt my feelings.” You may not even be talking to somebody and they hear you say something, “You can’t say that, shut up!” You know, people too weak and too spineless to not even be able to overlook it. I mean do you want to let somebody have that kind of power over you to offend you, you go right ahead, but in the meantime, I don’t know if you knew this or not, the California Supreme Court, this is not the Ninth Circus, “The California Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that writers have the right to talk dirty and make lewd comments while creating a television situation comedy without having to worry about being sued.

“The court said the writers of the hit TV series ‘Friends’ did not create a hostile work environment or sexually harass a woman who worked for them by transcribing their raucous work sessions creating programs. The case was closely watched in Hollywood, where several leading writers and civil liberties lawyers said the suit threatened to undermine freedom of speech and the creative process. A spokesman for Warner Bros. Television, named as a defendant in the suit, hailed the ruling, saying: ‘Now we can continue doing what we do best, writing and producing hit television shows–‘” cussing, making all kinds of despicable, deceitful remarks, I don’t care who hears them, and nobody can do anything to us about it. “The unanimous ruling by the –” (interruption) who’s safe, H.R.? Well, yeah, we’re safe because you people can’t come after me for hurtful speech because I am creating in the process.

The difference here, sex talk, offensive talk, when you’re creating art, writing a TV series — (laughing) — it doesn’t matter who you offend. Andres Serrano knows this, and so does the person who put elephant dung on the Virgin Mary at the Brooklyn museum. No, if you offend somebody in the process of, uh, being creative, which of course we are here on the EIB Network. So, you know, I’m immune. But if you put on — (interruption) yeah, you’re safe also because you all are part of the creative process, absolutely right. Everybody working on this program is safe. I mean, I can’t be sued for sexual harassment; I can’t be sued for anything based on this ruling in California — now, I know this ruling in California is California, but it’s precedent out there. So all of us in the creative process — (laughing) — we have free rein to make you mad, to hurt your feelings, and offend you ’til you die, and you can’t do anything about it. If you’re just an average schmo running around in school someplace wearing a harmless little T-shirt, you’re in trouble, according to the US Ninth Circus.

END TRANSCRIPT