U.S. attorney publishes letter to Boston Globe editor

August 20, 2010 - 13:33 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - Arnold R. Rosenfeld, of K & L Gates, LLP, attorney who, along with Erwin Chemerinsky of University of California Irvine Law School and Van Krikorian of Pace University Law School, represented the Armenian Assembly of America in the Griswold v. Driscoll case, published a letter to the editor in the Boston Globe, reported the Armenian Assembly of America.

Rosenfeld's letter corrects plaintiff attorney Harvey Silverglate's statement in the Globe's August 12 article. Silverglate represented the Assembly of Turkish American Associations, and sought not only to introduce Armenian Genocide denial materials into the American classroom but also to cut off teaching of the Armenian Genocide.

The letter says: “In the article “Schools can exclude materials disputing Armenian genocide: Court ruled on 1999 case’’ (Metro, Aug. 12), Peter Schworm quotes attorney Harvey Silverglate, representing the Assembly of Turkish American Associations, as stating that it “is always is a sad day when a court constricts First Amendment rights rather than expanding them.’’

In fact, as my client, the Armenian Assembly of America, argued in the amicus briefs I filed on its behalf in both the district and circuit courts, this was not really a claim to enforce First Amendment rights. Rather, it was a blatant attempt to give credibility to the denialist theory espoused by the Turkish plaintiffs that the Armenian genocide never occurred.

If the plaintiffs’ claims had been allowed, the only First Amendment rights that would have been trampled were those of the Board of Education to decide what should be included in the curriculum guidelines it issues for our public schools.

The board’s refusal to include in the guide the views of the plaintiffs was not censorship at all, but protection of the well-established First Amendment right of governmental free speech.

The “sad day’’ would have been the presentation of historically erroneous information to our students under the guise of freedom of speech.”