Article 301, Philly-style
Philly Daily News columnist Elmer Smith proves yet again that anybody who starts off by saying he supports free speech will end up calling for some limitation or other on somebody's right to talk. The issue this time? Licensing of downtown tour guides in Philadelphia, which is due to begin this fall and may eventually apply to all tour guides in the City of Brotherly Love. The license will require a test of Philadelphia history (and possibly parapsychology). If you're leading a tour without a license, you could be fined $300.
It turns out there;s a loophole in the U.S. Constitution allows people to say stuff without government permission. (That seems to be news to many philly.com commenters, including one who believes newspapers need government licenses to publish.) Philly tour guides have been using this loophole to tell lies about history. Worse still, they're telling the wrong lies about history. Mayor Michael Nutter has signed licensing legislation designed to protect the city's tourists from misinformation.
The Institute for Justice is taking the matter to court, saying it aims to vindicate citizens' "right to speak freely and to earn their living by speaking, without first having to ask the government's permission." I'd say an even more disturbing part of this news-of-the-weird story is the prospect of a city bureaucracy set up to decide what true history is. That's more troubling than a tour guide telling you the (factually accurate!) story that Ben Franklin married Betsy Ross.
