COURT RAISES CONCERNS ABOUT ALL OF OUR FREEDOMS WHEN IT CHOSES TO LIMIT JUST ONE

Also last week, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the appeal of a white supremacist from Illinois who says the state committee that denied him a law license violated his free-speech rights. Acting without comment, the high court turned aside Matthew Hale's arguments that Illinois "has established orthodox religious and political beliefs" to which an aspiring lawyer must subscribe as a condition of admission.

Hale, a leader of the segregationist World Church of the Creator, was denied a law license last summer even though he graduated from Southern Illinois University and passed the bar exam. State bar officials said Hale had "dedicated his life to inciting racial hatred" and "couldn't do this as an officer of the court." These officials had urged rejection of Hale's appeal, saying he failed to prove he has the "good moral character" required for admission to the bar. "As opposed to being excluded from Illinois' bar on the basis of beliefs or speech, Hale's past conduct, lack of credibility and inability to meet his burden of (good character) proof doomed his bar application," the committee said.

Free-speech concerns are serious and worthy of close scrutiny. Even if Hale has indeed been active in stirring up racial animosity, there are serious concerns about his rights as a U.S. citizen to hold those beliefs and to take advantage of his constitutional freedoms.