Daniel Putnam: Florida's anti-gay bill is wrong. It's also unconstitutional. - NBCNewsTHINK
involved a McCarthy-era loyalty oath that required all public employees to swear that one “has not, does not and will not lend aid, support, advice, counsel or influence to the Communist Party.”
After noting the “extraordinary ambiguity” of this language — what if you once voted for a candidate whom you knew some members of the Communist Party also happened to support, for example — the court struck Florida’s loyalty oath under the 14th Amendment’s due process clause., all of which are embodied in HB 1557.
First, they’ve said vague laws deny citizens adequate notice of what conduct will and will not make them vulnerable to legal sanctions. HB 1557’s extraordinary vagueness denies to members of the educational community the “Second, vague laws invite arbitrary and discriminatory application.
Third, when vague laws regulate expressive conduct, they have a chilling effect on First Amendment free speech rights., teachers and “third parties” alike will “steer far wider of the unlawful zone . . . than if the boundaries of the forbidden areas were clearly marked.” The chilling effect HB 1557 could underscore the core harm it poses: the burden on the free speech rights of LGBTQ teachers and students. Over the years, courts have consistently recognized that LGBTQ students and teachers have a basic First Amendment right to express who they are without being subjected to legal sanctions.