Arbeit macht frei: - Fredrick Töben

27. This case could therefore become the launching pad for a
revolutionary view that racial discrimination laws can obviate proper
science and proper historical research
28. Hence, this amicus calls the Court’s attention to the fact that one
consequence of a jail term for Toben will almost certainly be a reluctance
on the part of history and science teachers to handle any question from
students as to how the World War II gas chambers functioned, or how
the number of civilian deaths was arrived at.
29. Such reluctance would deprive students of being reminded that longstanding
rules of science and of historiography are still current and in need
of respect. To repeat the words of the 72 Nobel Prize winners: Scientific
education should accurately portray the current state of substantive
scientific knowledge. Even more importantly, scientific education should
accurately portray the premises and processes of science.
PART TWO: Free Speech as essential To Australian Politics
Australia Takes for Granted That Citizens Should Be Able To Speak Freely
30. The right of every person to think freely and speak freely is a modern
idea. No mention of such a right appears in the otherwise very prescient
Magna Carta of 1215, as people in those days understood ‘tradition’ to be
their guide. Only after Martin Luther started the protest-ant reformation of
the Church in Germany did the public debating of accepted truths
become (relatively) commonplace.
31. Still, by the time of the English Bill of Rights of 1689, the only ‘talk’
that was guaranteed to the subjects was talk to the monarch. ‘And
thereupon the said Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons…do…
for the vindicating and asserting their ancient rights and liberties
declare…That it is the right of the subjects to petition the king, and any
commitments or prosecutions for such petitioning are illegal.’
32. By 1791, the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United
States provided ‘Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of
speech, or of the press….’
33. The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions
calls upon libraries and library staff, today, ‘to adhere to the principles of
intellectual freedom, uninhibited access to information and freedom of
expression….’ www.ifla.org/faife
34. Australia follows common law to protect freedom of speech. Also, the
High Court has ruled that a right to freedom of political communication is
implied by the sections of the Constitution that guarantee representative
and responsible government, and that those sections ‘preclude the
curtailment of the protected freedom by the exercise of legislative or
executive power.’ - Australian Capital Television v Commonwealth (1992)
177 CLR.
137