PrintJune 11, 2009
California Coastal Commission flouts First Amendment
The California Coastal Commission has served a subpoena on a California documentary filmmaker who is making a film critical of the Commission.
The details are sketchy, but filmmaker Richard Oshen says that the Commission is using the power of a subpoena to obtain a copy of the film titled "Sins of Commission" which has not even been released yet. Oshen says:
The California Coastal Commission may try to silence the film because it reveals strong links between California’s increasingly catastrophic wildfires and the Coastal Commission’s prohibition of critical brush clearance.
The subpoena was probably issued by the office of the California Attorney General, Jerry Brown, since the AG represents state agencies in any litigation.
The Commission, headed by Executive Director Peter Douglas, has been accused of using heavy-handed methods in the past.
The Commission, headed by Executive Director Peter Douglas, has been accused of using heavy-handed methods in the past.
In an article in Freedom Advocates, attorney Ronald A. Zumbrun writes:
What do the former mayors of Malibu and San Diego, a former member of the California Coastal Commission, and a former captain of the County of Los Angeles Fire Department have in common? In a soon-to-be released documentary film entitled “Sins of Commission”, these former public servants, along with several other aggrieved property owners, describe in painful detail the transformation of the California Coastal Commission as a protector of the environment into a radical bureaucratic monster.
and
In the documentary film, Peter Douglas takes delight in describing himself as a “radical pagan heretic” and characterizes property owners who assert their constitutional rights in court as “jihadists.”
This seems to be a clear case of prior restraint which has been found unconstitutional in the past by the Supreme Court. Thus far, the ACLU has been silent.
