athletic contests, horse race handicappers, pollsters who forecast election returns, and
clergymen who describe the concept of a hereafter.”
“Under the First Amendment there is no such thing as a false idea,” the Cali-
fornia Supreme Court said. “However pernicious an opinion may seem, we depend for
its correction not on the conscience of judges and juries but on the competition of
other ideas.” The court did not rule on the validity or the value of astrology, nor sepa-
rate it from other metaphysical philosophies or occult arts. It leaves those tasks to the
marketplace of ideas, and the test of time and events.
In so ruling, the court, throughout its decision, cited federal precedent: cases
which were decided based on the protections guaranteed by the First Amendment to
the U.S. Constitution. However, they added a footnote at the beginning of their deci-
sion stating that their frequent use of the term First Amendment was “merely illustra-
tive” and that the ruling was based on the California Constitution.
This strategic move prevented an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, making
the California court’s opinion the final one. Since the cites in the decision are from
federal cases, they, and the ruling, would be very “persuasive” in courts in other states.
Their arguments would be influential, but the ruling is not “enforceable” outside Cali-
fornia. By law, the Azusa decision is “controlling” in California, which means cities
and counties mustabide by its ruling. However, many cities in this state have ignored
the decision until AFAN has reminded them of it and its force of law.
AFAN even had to sue the City of Albany (in the San Francisco Bay Area) to
overturn and invalidate that city’s ordinance. It was the “arrest first” variety, demand-
ing fingerprints, mug shots, a bond, and high fees. Most cities, in and out of Califor-
nia, are more responsive to AFAN’s presentations. City attorneys, council members,
and even district attorneys—but seldom police chiefs—recognize the unconstitution-
ality of prior restraint on the content of a common and popular subject of speech.
Quotes and citations from, and commentary on, the Azusa decision, combined with a
history of astrology’s role and influence in western civilization, taken from trial prepa-
ration in the Sundebruch case, and AFAN’s amicus curiaein the Azusa case, have
been collected in a pamphlet titled The Law & Astrology,which is AFAN’s major tool
and reference for overturning laws from the past that restrict those professional
astrologers who forecast the future.—Jayj JacobsSources:
AFAN Newsletter.Association for Astrology Networking.
Association for Astrology Networking. AFAN.www.afan.org.
Brau, Jean-Louis, Helen Weaver, and Allan Edmands. Larousse Encyclopedia of Astrology.New
York: New American Library, 1980.
Law & Astrology.Association for Astrology Networking.LEO
Leo, the fifth sign of the zodiac, is a fixed fire sign. It is a positive, masculine sign, and
is ruled by the Sun. Its symbol is the lion, and its glyph is said to be a modified versionLeo
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