THAT'S COOL

For my midterm exercise in Civil Liberties, I wrote up a hypothetical case about a fictional Seattle law aimed at preserving the city's musical heritage. In my hypo, this law ends up preventing a church from leveling a house on a piece of property it acquired after the law was passed. The church is dedicated to an innovative blend of reggae and gospel music (and has become popular with German tourists). The property that they acquired happens to be the childhood home of Kenny G, and aside from aesthetic objections to his music, church leaders also have a religious objection to it. The idea is to get my students to write about free exercise, establishment, and takings.

Then Dan, one of my students, sent me a link to this site, which carries these words:

March 23, 2004 11:30pm

**** BREAKING NEWS ****

Huntington Town Council voted unanimously to schedule a public hearing on the Historic Landmark Designation of the Coltrane Home

A Resolution co-sponsored by Councilwoman Berland and Councilman Mark Cuthbertson to schedule a public hearing on the Coltrane was voted unanimously in favor by the Town Council.

A Public Hearing will be held on April 20th, 2004 at 7pm in Huntington Town Hall to consider the designation of historic landmark status to the Coltrane Home in Dix Hills

This is it !!! What we have been waiting for !!

This is our opportunity to tell the members of the Town Council how important it is to designate the Coltrane home as a local landmark. The Town Council will vote based upon the input received from the public.

The Town Council’s vote is the final word on the status of the home. If they vote in our favor, the home will be saved from demolition !!!!!

We Need YOU !! to come to Town Hall and show your support for the Coltrane home.

Please save the date ... and be there on April 20th.

More info to come ....

I wrote back to the student and said that if I had put Coltrane in the hypo, it would have been an easier case. (BTW, today in class the lawyers for the city couldn't quite defend Kenny G with a straight face; one of them made references to the desirability of preserving Kenny G's home in the event that elevator music suddenly became unavailable.)