From Switcher to Ditcher
Sen. Specter sends his regrets

by James Taranto
The Wall Street Journal Online
May 18, 2009

http://www.legal-project.org/324/from-switcher-to-ditcher

Excerpt:

This column will be off tomorrow as we travel to Washington to participate in a conference on "Islamist lawfare" and the First Amendment. Among the announced participants in the conference was Sen. Arlen Specter (R2-D2, Pa.), a co-sponsor of the Free Speech Protection Act, which would prevent U.S. courts from enforcing libel judgments from foreign countries that lack free-speech protections similar to those in the U.S.

On Friday we received an email from the Council of American-Islamic Relations announcing apetition urging Specter to back out of the conference. The petition argues:

The false premise of this conference is that American Muslims are involved in a concerted effort to suppress free speech on Islam by misusing the American legal system.

We forwarded the email to our friend Brooke Goldstein, the conference organizer, and she told us Specter had already bowed out two days earlier, citing an unspecified scheduling conflict.

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