East Texas father standing up for rights after son is suspended for wearing Patriotic t-shirt

[GourmetDan]

Agree.  But consider how bad things have to get before serious civil disobedience will take place.  However, refusal/inability to sign up for "Obamacare" per the individual mandate may be a starter.  The IRS can only take the fine out of your refund--if you have one.  They cannot seize assets by the language of the ACA.  Problem is, Obama tweeks his "law" at will.

It will be a lot less disruptive and cost a lot less in terms of money and lives disrupted to just sue the hell out of people any time they infringe on your constitutional rights.

Once you start winning, most will 'settle' and the rest won't even try...

[EC]

There are a number of things I do not care for in the English culture; but I never felt the need to post something as "get in your face" as this.  You are posting on an "American" site, after all.

Evening famous!

There is a lot I detest about English culture. You give me a 50 item list and I can triple it within 10 minutes. And yes, this was meant to be inflammatory slightly.

But suing for your rights? How is that even a thing? They are your rights. Full stop. Assuming you have to sue means you are letting some pissed off and bored judge who just wants to go to lunch adjudicate. It is one of the things NO one outside the continental USA seems to understand.

Unlike most of us - with our unwritten constitutions, corrupt governments and a frankly don't really care attitude - you guys have them written down on a piece of paper. Yet you need spend good money and time to enforce the rights you already have. China has a better system than that!

All the time we hear of activist judges. Judicial activism. The courts making the law up from whole cloth with some odd interpretation that makes no sense. Why voluntarily let them?

Yesterday, when we were discussing school meals - a perfectly valid point came up. Why should a school district or a single principal dictate what  children can or can not eat.? It makes no sense from that stand point. Yet, if you take a school district to court - you will lose. They can not only afford the lawyers, they can afford the time and have an intense interest in covering their own well padded backsides. Plus they get the benefit of the "expert" effect. Think about it - you raise two kids - the school looks after 500 at once. The diet (or dress policy, or busing, or zero tolerance) has a passle of educational experts who have probably never seen a kid supporting it with thesis, written statements and verbal garbage on TV.
Who is a judge going to believe? A bunch of expert witnesses or a parent?

So - why play their game? If you must go the legal route - let the state sue you.

[andy58-in-nh]

Force mass arrests?  That gambit's already been played and yes the Nazis put enough people in camps that the rest of them shut their mouths real quick.  The didn't have to ship near 'all' of their people into camps for the rest to get the message.  American won't be any different.

America is vastly different from Nazi Germany. We have a long history of individual freedom, a military whose enlisted corps largely detests its nominal commander, and great expanses of open land. And also: privately-owned ordnance. A lot of it. Our blustering little Napoleons in D.C. would do well to remember that. Some of my relatives never made it out of Poland and the Ukraine. But they didn't have what I have to defend themselves, which in those days, would have exceeded the defensive capabilities of entire towns.

[GourmetDan]

America is vastly different from Nazi Germany. We have a long history of individual freedom, a military whose enlisted corps largely detests its nominal commander, and great expanses of open land. And also: privately-owned ordnance. A lot of it. Our blustering little Napoleons in D.C. would do well to remember that. Some of my relatives never made it out of Poland and the Ukraine. But they didn't have what I have to defend themselves, which in those days, would have exceeded the defensive capabilities of entire towns.

You just think it's different.

It's not and will (is) going down the same way...

[famousdayandyear]

It will be a lot less disruptive and cost a lot less in terms of money and lives disrupted to just sue the hell out of people any time they infringe on your constitutional rights.

Once you start winning, most will 'settle' and the rest won't even try...

There was a case here in NC that illustrates the absolute necessity for the course of action you suggest.

A young man here (senior in High School) accidentally let his unloaded rifle in this truck parked in the school parking lot.  He called his Mom when he realized what had happened to come get the rifle.  (This is an A grade student).

The school promptly suspended him indefinitely and forbade him to graduate.  (He had been accepted by a college for attendance in the Fall).  BTW, this is a very rural county where weekend hunting in season is the norm.

A judge fortunately intervened and ruled against the school district.  When government schools are involved, the justice system is often the sole recourse to save a student from a ridiculous ruination of his future career.   You are so right in many ways.  I do not know if that zero tolerance crap is still in place there.  Hope not.

[Fishrrman]

[[ What are they going to do - suspend civil rights? ]]

Yes.

[[ Ship us all to camps? ]]

Yes.

[[ I don't think so - unless they want a war. ]]

I sense they do, because they think they can win by using the state's power of the military (who are being "cleansed and groomed" for such an operation) and the ever-increasingly militarized civilian police. The left truly believes this.

[[ At some point, push is going to come to shove. ]]

It will.
Actually, it MUST.
If this doesn't happen, we'll continue our slide towards a police surveillance state and eventually, totalitarianism.
Two choices, and only two: resist or submit (sounds like that islam thing, eh?)

[[ Let's not wait until we can no longer shove back. ]]

Agreed.

[Liberal_Spy]

Sorry, that is the one thing I detest about American culture.

Yeah, definitely. A bunch of stupid lawsuits are why kids don't even have recess anymore.

[ABX]

There are times and places for all of these tactics along with good and bad ways to approach each one. One size does not fit all. Because these are rights being removed, it is hard to follow the 'opt out' approach here. A good legal defense focusing on retaining rights versus changing laws could be a positive action. Long term action in taking back the school board is another option. A city wide 'buycott' of this shirt and overwhelming the school with protest messages is another option here.

Going silently however, isn't an option.

[rangerrebew]

You just think it's different.

It's not and will (is) going down the same way...

I've got 3 or 4 books on Nazi Germany going and, yes, the US does currently bear a remarkable resemblance to Nazi Germany in the way the government is destroying a nation, corrupting its people, both led by people who had suspicious "eligibility" backgrounds, both surrounded by whack heads, adored by the press until the press was in danger of saying anything bad about Der Fuhrer, neither Fuhrer interested in foreign policy, inept government, the Nazis demonizing Jews and Obama the wealthy, both using ways around the Constitutions, etc., etc.  It is indeed going down that way in the US.