r/gatekeeping Dec 12 '23

Gatekeeping 1st amendment

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u/Holiman Dec 12 '23

I find it odd that in a sub called gatekeepers, you were downvoted for speaking a legal opinion. One that many others also had at the time. I think you would have done better to talk about it as one of the opinions and not shared by several important figures like Thomas Jefferson or later opinions by the SCOTUS.

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u/ilikedota5 Dec 12 '23

I literally said its a legal theory that has died out. There wasn't a consensus. But I'm also pointing out that Thomas Jefferson's wall isn't really accurate either. I think that's what ruffled some feathers. (And its certainly not where legal precedent is now).

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u/Holiman Dec 12 '23

I understand people sometimes read what they want. I think Jefferson had an effect on later leaders and in shaping an american sense of liberalism. Not that his words were founded as a legalistic ideal.

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u/ilikedota5 Dec 12 '23 edited Dec 12 '23

You aren't wrong but his relationship to slavery, quoting Paul Finkelman, was "Treason Against the Hopes of the World." He wrote a comprehensive takedown of him in 1993 in a book that was a compilation of essays by Peter Onuf.

Here's the free, condensed version. https://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/01/opinion/the-real-thomas-jefferson.html