California senator wants to drop Cold War communist laws

[stimbox]

Source: San Jose Mercury News

SACRAMENTO—Sen. Alan Lowenthal thinks it's about time that California removes some of the last vestiges of the Cold War from its laws.
The Long Beach Democrat has introduced a bill that would scrap statutes allowing teachers and other public employees to be fired for being members of the Communist Party.
The measure, scheduled to be considered Wednesday by the Senate Education Committee, also would drop a requirement that representatives of organizations seeking to use school facilities sign a form stating they do not have communist affiliations.
Lowenthal said the measure would drop old laws that were adopted at the height of the Red Scare following World War II and that have been found unconstitutional by the courts.

Read more: http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_8749719

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About time they did this.
Thank you Senator Lowenthal!

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. About time, indeed

[sharesunited]

2. "Under God" was added to the Pledge during this era.

[hyphenate]

4. Yeah

another thing worth dropping. Wouldn't that scare the pants off the religious right? :)

[magellan]

3. Link is broken

This one works: http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_8749719

If the laws have already been found unconstitutional, aren't they already technically "scrapped"? Are they only still on the books because some RWers think unconstitutional statutes are protecting their children from being indoctrinated in communism? :crazy:

[struggle4progress]

8. Might be good idea to pull em anyway with all the Bushistas now on the bench

[Hekate]

5. Now if they'd also drop that silly oath of allegiance to the State and the Nation...

For crying out loud -- it gave me the creeps when I had to sign it upon employment as a secretary at UCSB, and for people with religious prohibitions against signing oaths, it causes real difficulties.

It's a real "Homeland" kinda thing, and is an artifact of the McCarthy era.

Hekate

[Vidar]

6. Applauding the good Senator.

[Ellen Forradalom]

7. It's only sensible.

A rare commodity in politics these days.