Legal Question in Constitutional Law in Texas

Re: Equal Protection of the Law for Minors in the Press

Howdy:

To expand on Ed's answer, the Freedom of the Press provision of the First Amendment is intended to ensure an open debate. As Ed stated, it's not the freedom to do what they want; but rather a freedom from interference or oversight by the Government.

To violate a Bill of Rights provision, a law must be specifically tailored to abridge those rights. Laws of general application, like this one, are never found unconstitutional because the effect is tangential.

Additionally, the Government at every level views driving as a privilege, rather than a right. So, the Government is free to restrict it in any way it sees fit.

Hope this helped.

rkr

Re: Equal Protection of the Law for Minors in the Press

I'm sorry to disappoint you, but your argument won't work. The press has to obey the same laws as everybody else. Otherwise reporters would be free to break into people's homes and offices to find out what is going on inside, or to intercept private telephone calls and emails.

Reporters are allowed to go anyplace where the public can go, but it is up to the reporters to get there by a legal method.

The Equal Protection clause also won't help you. Its role is to prevent discrimination against certain categories of people (such as members of religious or racial minorities) and to ensure that they are treated equally by the law. Reporters aren't such a category, and even if they were this law does not discriminate against them because underage reporters have the same driving privileges as underage non-reporters. The law does discriminate on the basis of age, but minors are not entitled to be treated as if they were adults and laws which discriminate against them for legitimate reasons are valid.