[johnae]

Instead on going on a rant and rave about how stupid this is, I'd prefer to ask this question:

HOW DOES DRU GET TOP BILLING OVER THIS?????

I feel better now.

[dighton]

Three-judge panel of the wacky 9th Circuit. Unlikely to stand.

[thoughtomator]

It was posted yesterday. Before you and everyone else here leap to conclusions, read the actual opinion.

Humanitarian Law Project v. Ashcroft
http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov

I would guess that less than 1 in 100 people here with an opinion are capable of stating in layman's terms what the case and the decision are about.

The reaction to this case on FR has been a big disappointment to me. Maybe I'm just spoiled, but a couple years back one could count on people reading the opinion, or at least a review from a respectable person with experience in the field, before lighting the torches.

9th Cir. does a LOT of really assinine things, but this opinion ain't one of them.

[timydnuc]

Congress needs to break up the 9th Circus right GD now! The plan has been in the works for years but the RATS always got in the way. Well, we have the majority now, let's get it done.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

Here's a gem from the opinion: "The Court recognized that a person who is a merely a member of an organization does not necessarily share in the community of intent of the organization."

We can all run out and join al-Qaeda tomorrow and be free and clear as long as we plead ignorance. If you get picked up, just say, "I didn't know al-Qaeda was into anything criminal against America. I thought it was just fun training for a paintball tournament."

[freekitty]

I have an idea. Why don't we move the 9th court out to Alcatraz Island and they can practice all the law they want in the middle of ocean and it won't mean a you know what thing?

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

[Another case involved six Americans of Yemeni descent who were convicted under the law of providing "material support" to Al Qaeda (search). Authorities described the six, who lived just blocks apart in Lackawanna, N.Y., as a sleeper cell awaiting orders from Usama bin Laden's network....The Lackawanna case isn't governed by the 9th Circuit. Still, if it survives a Supreme Court appeal, Wednesday's decision in San Francisco may be a blow to Ashcroft's prosecution of that and other cases in the war on terror.}

Can we withhold financing of the 9th CCOA due to their aiding and abeting terrorists?

[Patangeles]

In addition, the court wrote that it is unconstitutional to criminalize donations of personnel or training, which fall under the "material support" section of the law, because that "blurs the line between protected expression and unprotected expression."

But expression is not Constitutionally protected . Only speech is. Herein lies the fallacy.