Sen. Jason Rapert sent me a Tweet early this morning claiming that Facebook had relented and reinstated some anti-Muslim Facebook posts that had been removed for violation of the private social media company’s “community standards.”

His Tweet is shown above.

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Perhaps I’m looking the wrong place. I don’t find them in an immediate search of this Rapert Facebook page. 

UPDATE: Apparently I’m excluded from the Facebook page on which Rapert posts his most repugnant rants. The Democrat-Gazette reported subsequently that it had received an e-mail statement from Facebook saying the Rapert posts had been removed in error and restored after it had a chance to investigate.

Restored or not, some further constitutional law instruction is necessary for the Bully of Bigelow.

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In case you missed Rapert’s weekend eruption, he commented on Facebook after the New York bombing:

Regardless of who is responsible for these events today – we need to round up every single Muslim extremist sympathizer and other anti-American crazies and detain them or deport them. And for goodness sake – stop bringing more Muslims into this nation.

The First Amendment says:

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Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Remedial education for Jason Rapert:

The amendment pertains to Congress and, by extension, other arms of government. Government may not restrict speech. A private company, Facebook, is free to impose its own editing standards, including a refusal to publish, for example, hateful remarks about a world religion.

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But, Rapert’s call to ban Muslims from the United States would require government action. To evict Muslims or to ban entry of Muslims on account of religion would, of course, be a religious test. That IS unconstitutional. It’s the kind of thing that the Founding Fathers had in mind when they wrote the document.

Maybe a monument to the Bill of Rights could be of more use at the Capitol than the Ten Commandments monument Rapert is pushing. The Arkansas legislature disrespects both regularly.

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To illustrate how off-base Rapert is, here’s a Tweet from a Twitter account from which he blocks me. But Twitter has many backdoors to see the rants of bigots. (Is Rapert violating my First Amendment rights by preventing me from commenting on his Facebook page by blocking me. Of course not. He’s merely a wuss.)

UPDATE: If you can stand it, more bilge from the Bully of Bigelow:

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 I encourage anyone who has experienced having a conservative or Christian post removed from Facebook to please contact me with your story at Jason.rapert@senate.ar.gov. A social media platform that is specifically offered to allow individuals and organizations to share their ideas freely with others must not act to suppress the free speech rights of those users if their comments are truthful, not vulgar and not in violation of law.

I am grateful that FaceBook restored my posts asking for prayer for those affected by the recent radical Islamic terrorist attacks and encouraging Americans to be watching for radical Islamic extremists and report them to law enforcement. Our nation is engaged in a prolonged and ever increasing dangerous war being waged upon us by radical Islamists – we must oppose them with everything we have. Communicating the truth on this subject matter is the foundation upon which we must base our efforts to defeat these extremists and hopefully win this struggle.

I hope to be informed sometime soon why FaveBook removed my posts in the first place. They did ultimately do the right thing but not until they were questioned about their actions. This is troubling.

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