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1996-05-06
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Date: Sat, 3 Jun 1995 08:59:57 -0400
Message-Id: <Pine.3.89.9506030838.A7108-0100000@equinox.shaysnet.com>
From: Richard Evans <devans@equinox.shaysnet.com>
To: Multiple recipients of list <drctalk@drcnet.org>
Subject: Rep. Solomon
This is from the (new) July 1995 issue of REASON.
The typos are mine.
-- Dick
=================================================
SPEECH CODE
A drug warrior tries to stifle critics of prohibition.
by Rick Henderson
In April, a powerful member of Congress introduced a bill that
would punish the donors of organizations that advocate legalizing certain
unlawful activities. In this instance, the targets aren't people who
bankroll rural militias; instead the congressman wants to zero in on
supporters of the Reason Foundation (publishers of REASON), the Cato
Institute, the Drug Policy Foundation, and any other tax-exempt group
that promotes drug legalization.
On April 6, Rep. Gerald Solomon (R-N.Y.), chairman of the House
Rules Committee, proposed HR 1453, a bill that would revoke the
tax-exempt status of any organization "if any portion of the activities
of such organization consists of promoting the legalization of any
controlled substance." Solomon promised to attach his proposal as an
amendment to some other bill that's likely to pass.
In a vitriolic statement Solomon entered in the Congressional
Record, he singled out "the libertarian elites at the Cato Institute," and
the "deceptive, sinister, and seedy" Drug Policy Foundation as two
examples of groups that have placed "the American family...under attack"
by advocating an end to prohibition.
Solomon would also move beyond revoking the tax-exempt status of
organizations; he would instruct the Internal revenue Service to hunt
down their donors. "These organizations and the individuals involved with
them are violating United States Tax Code," he said. "They need to be
investigated and their contributors should be required to pay taxes on
past contributions." The bill would affect not only policy organizations
but other non-profits, including, for instance, drug treatment clinics,
universities, and religious groups.
Phil Gutis, a spikesman for the American Civil Liberties Union,
calls Solomon's bill "patently unconstitutional. The [Supreme] Court has
been very clear that you can't punish individuals or organizations for
what they advocate...The only goal of this bill is to prevent advocacy."
Gutis says conservative drug warriors like Solomon should be
careful before they push new restrictions on advocacy. A legislative
mechanism that lets the feds punish advocates of drug legalization
today, he says, couyld later be used to punish persons "because they
belong to the [National Rifle Association] or subscribe to Soldier of
Fortune."
###