Thursday, November 22, 2018
Neo-Nazi Harassment Is Not Free Speech, Judge Rules
Tweets are speech so this is a bit odd. Anglin did encourage tweets but nothing more
A federal judge’s decision to allow a lawsuit to proceed against the publisher of a neo-Nazi website is “dangerous for free speech,” the publisher’s attorney said Thursday.
Attorney Marc Randazza said he believes U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen made a legally flawed decision Wednesday in ruling the First Amendment does not shield Daily Stormer publisher Andrew Anglin from being sued for his followers’ anti-Semitic harassment of a Jewish woman and her family in Montana.
Randazza said he can “see the allure of not wanting to rule in favor of the Nazi,” but expressed concern that the decision could be used to curtail free speech in many other forums.
“The rule needs to be the same no matter what your view is,” he said.
Christensen’s decision allows Tanya Gersh to proceed with her claims that Anglin invaded her privacy, inflicted emotional distress on her and her family and violated Montana’s anti-intimidation law by calling on his followers to unleash a “troll storm” on her, her husband and her 12-year-old son.
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4 comments:
Rotten people need to be restrained.
Harassment is illegal. Calling on people to commit illegal acts is illegal. Therefore, calling on other people to commit specific illegal acts with the reasonable expectation that your encouragement will motivate them to commit specific illegal acts (in this case, the harassment of a specific person) may - MAY - mean that such speech is not constitutionally protected.
A General Statement targeting a group (Jews are horrible awful people) is not the same as a Specific Statement (THIS Jew needs to be harassed). The former is not actionable, under any interpretation of hate speech laws in the US. The second - that might be, and I suspect the courts will hold it is, because of the illegal nature of such action it calls for.
Of Course, my interpretation under such a law MIGHT expose Maxine Waters to prosecution should a group of people harass Trump Administration Members under her "direction" and encouragement.
I wonder how the judge feels about all those calls by the left to confront, harass, etc. conservatives?
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