To the Editor:
In response to the recent March 28, 2024, editorial: Decision to gut access law is disappointing.
HB 1338 in my opinion, is unconstitutional. When the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, it incorporated and bound all states to the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights, our right of equal protection, our right to due process, and more.
Many states have incorporated some, if not all, of the Bill of Rights into their own State constitutions. Indiana being one of them, to include the right of the people of Indiana to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
Indiana Constitution, Article 1, Section 9: “No law shall be passed, restraining the free interchange of thought and opinion, or restricting the right to speak, write, or print, freely, on any subject whatever: but for the abuse of that right, every person shall be responsible.”
Article 1, Section 31: “No law shall restrain any of the inhabitants of the state from assembling together in a peaceable manner, to consult for their common good; nor from instructing their representatives; nor from applying to the General Assembly for redress of grievances.”
Thomas Jefferson asked “…whether peace is best preserved by giving energy to the government, or information to the people. This last is the most certain and the most legitimate engine of government. Educate and inform the whole mass of the people. Enable them to see that it is their interest to preserve peace and order, and they will preserve them. And it requires no very high degree of education to convince them of this. They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.”
George Langston
Greenfield
