Spain woman among first fined under new security law News
Spain woman among first fined under new security law

[JURIST] A women in Petrer, Spain was fined 800 Euros ($885) on Monday for taking a photograph of a police car parked in a handicap spot and posting it temporarily to her Facebook page. The Citizens’ Security Law [text, PDF, in Spanish], which went into effect in July, aims to protect the safety of police and their families. Among many other infractions, it outlaws burning the national flag, protesting outside of parliament buildings, and distributing photographs of police officers that could threaten their operations. Many opponents also argue the law prohibits free speech. The officers claimed [The Local report] they were parked in the handicap spot because they were responding to a report of vandalism which they say was an emergency and that the photograph attacked their honor.

When the Citizens’ Security Law went into effect in July, thousands gathered [JURIST report] across Spain to protest. In February, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) [official website] urged [JURIST report] Spanish authorities to reject the law. Earlier that month, Amnesty International [advocacy website] warned [JURIST report] that separate proposed anti-terrorism measures would violate citizen’s rights. Protesters also gathered to oppose the law [JURIST report] when it was being considered in December.

THIS DAY @ LAW

President Johnson signed law against burning draft cards

On August 31, 1965, President Johnson signed a law making the burning of draft cards a federal offense subject to a five-year prison sentence and $1000 fine. In response to the law and in protest of the war in Vietnam, the student-run National Coordinating Committee to End the War in Vietnam staged the first public burning of a draft card in the United States on October 15, 1965. The constitutionality of the federal law was upheld in 1968 by the US Supreme Court in US v. O'Brien.

Gdansk Agreement reached

On August 31, 1980, the communist government of Poland and labor leaders settled the Gdansk Agreement. The accord settled a summer of labor strikes at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk, Poland. With the Agreement, Poland became the first communist country to allow the creation of an independent labor union, which was called Solidarity. Solidarity then became the driving force that ended communism in Poland. Learn more about the history of Solidarity.