[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 149 (Thursday, September 14, 2023)]
[House]
[Page H4306]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       CONSTITUTION UNDER ATTACK

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Wisconsin (Mr. Grothman) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GROTHMAN. Mr. Speaker, I think probably the single most important 
thing done in this body is when we uphold our oath to protect and 
defend the Constitution of the United States.
  I, therefore, would bring to the attention of the body two instances 
while we were on break in which the Constitution was under attack, and 
I don't think enough Americans know about it.
  One of the things was in the State of New Mexico, the Governor of New 
Mexico decided to declare war on the Second Amendment on the grounds 
that there was an uptick or maybe a big increase in murder in the 
Albuquerque area.
  The Second Amendment is absolute. We don't get rid of the Second 
Amendment if the murder rate is up 30 percent. The reason we don't get 
rid of it is our Forefathers wanted the power to be with the people, 
not the government. But it is particularly ridiculous in that it is 
obvious why we have had an uptick in murder in the last 3 years in this 
country. I think there are three obvious reasons.
  One, the government is mucking around where they shouldn't, as was 
mentioned by the founders of Black Lives Matter. People around here 
wanted to disrupt what they refer to as the Western-prescribed nuclear 
family. In other words, they want to get the man out of the household.
  We also have people trying to elect district attorneys who don't like 
to put people in jail, judges who don't like to put people in jail, and 
antipolice forces who make the police timid. When all these things get 
done, you wind up having an increase in murder.
  I would point out that John Adams said that America was built for a 
moral and religious people. We have to get back to that moral and 
religious people so they don't abuse their right to guns. In the 
interim, the idea of leaving guns in the hands of the lawbreakers, 
which of course is what will happen, and taking guns from the people 
who are law abiding could not be worse. It is almost hard to believe 
that at this time in our history we have a Governor--a lawyer no less--
who wants to enact a law, taking away the guns from the law abiding but 
presumably leaving in place the policies which resulted in increase in 
murder in the first place by not taking action against the type of 
people who are breaking the law.
  The Second Amendment was under attack. A decision was made in the 
Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in which the Biden administration had 
tried to weigh in on social platforms that were giving a narrative of 
the COVID epidemic that was not in line with what Pfizer and their 
political allies wanted to say.
  We have a First Amendment in this country, and we expect decisions to 
be made based upon a free exchange of ideas. We beat people in the 
court of public opinion. We don't say the government shouldn't weigh in 
and say we are not going to let people who disagree with us have a 
public platform.
  The Biden administration chafes at the idea of free speech. They 
wanted to get only their way in dealing with the pandemic, and they 
decided to restrict free speech here in America. That should scare 
everyone to death, that we elected a President of the United States who 
wanted to restrict free speech.
  Another thing that really concerned me about that, in an article by 
The New York Times, which I think is still viewed as an important paper 
by some people in this body, said the Court decision, which was a slap 
down of the Biden administration, was a victory for conservatives.
  In other words, today, the people who write for The New York Times 
have said that upholding free speech is something conservatives do, 
implying it is not something that progressives or Democrats or 
liberals, or whatever, do. This is a scary thing.
  When I was very young, I was a Democrat, believe it or not. At that 
time the Democrats were perceived I think even more boldly in favor of 
free speech than Republicans. So everybody was in favor of free speech. 
Nobody disagreed with the First Amendment.
  Now, we have a decision in which truly the paper of record of 
leftwing America is saying that when the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals 
upholds free speech or slaps down the Biden administration for trying 
to restrict free speech, that is a victory for conservatives, implying 
it is a defeat for the progressives. Think about that.
  I hope The New York Times reconsiders its position and does some sort 
of apology to America and say that they are going to try to do what 
they can to make progressives or the left, or whatever, advocates for 
free speech again.
  In any event, we have two examples of the Constitution under attack. 
I hope the public demands that we stand united behind the First and 
Second Amendment.

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