US Congress expands authoritarian anti-protest law

• The virtually unanimous passage of H.R. 347 starkly exposes the fact that, despite all the posturing, the Democrats and the Republicans stand shoulder to shoulder with the corporate and financial oligarchy, which regarded last year’s popular protests against social inequality with a mixture of fear and hostility.

• President Obama: Veto the “Anti-Protester” Bill

• 10 Reasons The U.S. Is No Longer The Land Of The Free

Tom Carter, World Socialist Website

Submitted by David Culver

A bill passed Monday (Mar 5) in the US House of Representatives and Thursday (Mar 1) in the Senate would expand existing anti-protest laws that make it a felony—a serious criminal offense punishable by a lengthy prison term—to “enter or remain in” an area designated as “restricted.”

The bill—H.R. 347, or the “Federal Restricted Buildings and Grounds Improvement Act of 2011”—was passed by unanimous consent in the Senate, while only Ron Paul and two other Republicans voted against the bill in the House of Representatives (the bill passed 388-3). Not a single Democratic politician voted against the bill.

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Related:

President Obama: Veto the “Anti-Protester” Bill, OpEdNews.com

• The U.S. House and Senate have both recently passed bills that place crushing new restrictions on the First Amendment rights of all Americans. This legislation puts new limitations in place that charge protesters with federal crimes if they protest on federal grounds, at any location in which someone protected by the Secret Service (the President, a former President, a Presidential candidate, or any number of domestic or international figures), or at any location sanctioned as being of “national significance” — including the Democratic and Republican conventions and even Super Bowl XXXVI.

• Sign the petition.

10 Reasons The U.S. Is No Longer The Land Of The Free, Jonathan Turley

• Whether we are viewed as a free country with authoritarian inclinations or an authoritarian nation with free aspirations (or some other hybrid definition), we are clearly not what we once were.

• Obama: A disaster for civil liberties

Tags: Bill of Rights, Civil Liberties, constitutional rights, Human Rights, peaceful protest