Arkansas Town Draws a Line on Clubs

[alp227]

Source: The New York Times

Be careful before starting a Boy Scout troop in Gould, Ark. Or a Harry Potter fan club. Or a baseball team.

The City Council adopted an ordinance last week making it illegal to form any kind of group without its permission.

That is a clear violation of the Constitution, legal scholars agree. But it is also a sign of just how nasty politics has gotten in Gould, a farming town of 1,100 some 70 miles southeast of Little Rock, where members of the Council have struggled with a local political group that seeks to influence how the town is governed. The mayor, Earnest Nash Jr., also happens to be a member of the political group, the Gould Citizens Advisory Council.

Even by the standards of small-town dramas, Gould’s situation is bleak. The town faces nearly $300,000 in unpaid taxes, and there have been frequent clashes among the mayor, the advisory group and the City Council over how to repay it. Those clashes — and a perception by the City Council that the citizens’ group is seeking too much influence — led to the ban on new organizations.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/20/us/20arkansas.html

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First Amendment: "Congress shall make no law...abridging...the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

Seriously? I wonder how many people in that area are Tea Party supporters who demand that government follow the Constitution "as the founders intended."

[Drale]

1. If I lived in that town

it would be war, in a town of 1100 people they know exactly who is trying to control them and it would be very easy to either scare them out of town or at the very least show them they will not abide by any tampering with their lives.

[no_hypocrisy]

2. Gould, Ark. makes the town in "Footloose" look like liberal bastion.

[MineralMan]

3. I guess they'll have to shut down all the churches in town, then.

Yup.

[perdita9]

4. Doloroes Umbrage did the exact same thing in Harry Potter

No clubs could be formed at Hogwort's without her express permission which she wouldn't give to anyone she didn't like.

Of course, Doloroes Umbrage was practically a Nazi too.

[justabob]

10. lol, that is the first thing I thought of :) nt

[PavePusher]

11. Wee bit of a legal difference between a private school and a local government.

You can look this stuff up in factual books about government, if you really want to.

[valerief]

5. Guess it'll have to be the Harry Potter Church or Boy Scout Church instead. nt

[JDPriestly]

6. Sounds like something the ACLU might be interested in.

[KamaAina]

7. Unpaid taxes?

I thought municipalities were tax-exempt?

[24601]

8. Gould is 85% black - convince me that they Tea party. No,

it's highly likely that the council and mayor are all Dems.

http://www.city-data.com/city/Gould-Arkansas.html

[The Northerner]

12. Is that information accurate? I'll have to verify with another source.

[alp227]

13. well rural people (white OR black) tend to be more conservative don't they? n/t

[TheCentepedeShoes]

9. I guess Spanky and Alfalfa

will have to disband the He Man Woman Hater's Club and tear down their tree house