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Anti-DEA rants on Facebook spark criminal prosecution
CNET ^ | 12 Oct 2012 | Declan McCullagh

Posted on 10/15/2012 11:54:55 AM PDT by Theoria

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To: Talisker
Then, as corporations have no rights, his cliam of having the "right" to free speech will be dismissed as frivolous.

Except that Citizens United held that corporations do have such right to free speech.

What we have here is a "when it's convenient" law: that is it applies, or doesn't, according to how convenient it is to those in authority.
I suspect that he is being targeted precisely because the DEA is operating on the assumption of authority, but that any delving into those assumptions would prove them to be false.

41 posted on 10/15/2012 4:51:22 PM PDT by OneWingedShark (Q: Why am I here? A: To do Justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with my God.)
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To: Theoria
Michael is accused of writing a series of posts in August 2011 (and creating a "statewide" Facebook event scheduled for November 2011) containing vague but angry and violent statements regarding DEA agents. One alleged post: "War is near..anarchy and justice will be sought...I'll kill whoever I deem to be in the way of harmony to the human race...BE WARNED IF U PULL ME OVER!!"

No doubt the court is soon to be clogged with rap artists. I'm sure Ice Cube will have multiple subpoenas to answer.
42 posted on 10/15/2012 5:03:31 PM PDT by Renderofveils (My loathings are simple: stupidity, oppression, crime, cruelty, soft music. - Nabokov)
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To: Theoria

So if someone were to say “Occasionally the tree of Liberty must be watered with the blood of Patriots and Tyrants...BE WARNED IF U PULL ME OVER!!” on a website, what would happen?


43 posted on 10/15/2012 5:16:19 PM PDT by rottndog (Occasionally the tree of Liberty must be watered with the blood of Patriots and Tyrants-BE WARNED)
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To: GraceG
Never gripe about the cops, they are just the enforcers,

Buttshil !!! The pigs are practicing law by whim and getting worse. There's no check on this abuse of power. Having been on calls with them over the years the nicest thing I can say about them is that about 75% should be behind bars with Bubba. There actually are a small minority who are decent human beings. Real stand up guys. Not many though.

44 posted on 10/15/2012 5:26:10 PM PDT by Sirius Lee (Tequila can hurt but it wasn't designed to kill you. Taqiyya is.)
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To: RitchieAprile

This guy said that he intended to go out and kill cops. The idea that you have to mention a specific person for it to be considered a threat is ridiculous. No terrorist could ever be arrested for plotting to kill non-specific Americans then. There certainly should be investigation to make sure he won’t be the next mass shooter. There’s not enough from this alone to know if he is guilty or not guilty but a trial is warranted. Warning signs like this should be taken seriously.


45 posted on 10/15/2012 5:40:44 PM PDT by JediJones (ROMNEY/RYAN: TURNAROUND ARTISTS ***** OBAMA/BIDEN: BULL $HIT ARTISTS)
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To: Theoria

...BE WARNED IF U PULL ME OVER!!”

I believe this falls into the same category as shouting fire in a theater when there is no fire.


46 posted on 10/15/2012 6:02:20 PM PDT by W. W. SMITH ((Yuri Bezmenov (KGB Defector) - "Kick The Communists Out of Your Govt. & Don't Accept Their Goodies.)
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To: Theoria
Once two strangers climbed on rocky top,
Lookin' for a moonshine still.
Strangers ain't come back from rocky top,
Guess they never will.

Rocky top, you'll always be
Home sweet home to me.
Good ole rocky top,
Rocky top tennessee, rocky top tennessee.

47 posted on 10/15/2012 6:15:04 PM PDT by Manic_Episode (Some days...it's just not worth chewing through the leather straps....)
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To: rurgan
Obama has turned America into a communist dictatorship.

Naw. Obama is working for Sharia Law. Communism is just to get radicals like Hillary and Bill Clinton excited. Even those two idiots are starting to see the light. How about you? Are you finally seeing that Egypt and Libya were about setting radical governments in place to join Iran? Probably not, but think about it. Obama = Muslim explains everything.

48 posted on 10/15/2012 6:24:07 PM PDT by politicianslie (Obama: Our first Muslim PRESIDENT,destroying America $1 Trillion at a time! And America sleeps)
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To: W. W. SMITH
...BE WARNED IF U PULL ME OVER!!”
I believe this falls into the same category as shouting fire in a theater when there is no fire.

That example is one of the most horrid examples of legal thought that there is. The case wherein it is referenced was about a guy publishing in protest to WWI, that he was a socialist is irrelevant, his claim was that the war was immoral and that people should refuse the draft as well as petition congress to repeal the draft. (Now, given the predicate that the war was immoral that would make a law pressing people into actual direct service thereof also immoral; and one of the tenants of law, now lost thanks to modernity's rejection of law's moral basis, is that an immoral law is evil, and therefore not legitimate as law is to be just. -- Also, given that the incident where-which Congress garnered support [the sinking of an English ship carrying about 130 Americans, as well as war supplies] was possibly that generation's Fast & Furious given 1: the German embassy/consulate paid for newspaper ads [in dozens of papers] advising the Americans of the dangers of traveling abroad due the state of war, 2: due the State-Department's policies only 3 of those ads were ever run, and 3: the warships escorting the ship were ordered to fall back a half-day before the attack... [assumption] that the entry into WWI was immoral may well have been right.)

So then, this case was the direct result of political speech, unambiguously the sort of speech that the First Amendment protects.

The Supreme Court then, in order to legitimize the unconstitutional sedition laws whereby this man was being prosecuted came up with that theater argument as an example. IOW, it was nothing but the justification for an unwritten exception into the restrictions on the government by the Constitution; much like the Affordable Care Act's decision recently.

(PS - The correct answer to the theater scenario is this: the man should be held criminally responsible for any deaths, and civilly accountable for injuries [taken to court].)

49 posted on 10/15/2012 7:52:44 PM PDT by OneWingedShark (Q: Why am I here? A: To do Justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with my God.)
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To: OneWingedShark

Should not Roger Baldwin and his myrmidons be held accountable for weakening the constitution and the law. He took soviet money clear into the seventies to continue his efforts through the ACLU. That he was socialist was relevant, he was also advocating the violent overthrow of the government and was a card carrying member of CPUSA. Where you trying to run a fast one past us? I am still upset he spent so little time in prison.


50 posted on 10/15/2012 8:59:29 PM PDT by W. W. SMITH ((Yuri Bezmenov (KGB Defector) - "Kick The Communists Out of Your Govt. & Don't Accept Their Goodies.)
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To: W. W. SMITH
Where you trying to run a fast one past us?

No, I was referring to the case Schenck v. United States, 249 U.S. 47 (1919).

Should not Roger Baldwin and his myrmidons be held accountable for weakening the constitution and the law. He took soviet money clear into the seventies to continue his efforts through the ACLU. That he was socialist was relevant, he was also advocating the violent overthrow of the government and was a card carrying member of CPUSA.

I'm unfamiliar w/ Roger Baldwin; there is however at least one thing different between the case I cited and this: there was no advocacy to overthrow the government in the 1919 case.

51 posted on 10/15/2012 10:28:32 PM PDT by OneWingedShark (Q: Why am I here? A: To do Justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with my God.)
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To: Theoria
Michael is accused of writing a series of posts in August 2011 (and creating a "statewide" Facebook event scheduled for November 2011) containing vague but angry and violent statements regarding DEA agents. One alleged post: "War is near..anarchy and justice will be sought...I'll kill whoever I deem to be in the way of harmony to the human race...BE WARNED IF U PULL ME OVER!!"

I'm all about his cause...but that's just not smart football.

52 posted on 10/15/2012 11:03:05 PM PDT by Vigilantcitizen (Dave Mustaine for president.)
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To: W. W. SMITH
I believe this falls into the same category as shouting fire in a theater when there is no fire.

No, it is not.

Shouting fire when there is none still causes panic. The panic results in harm, thus the end result of the 'speech' is harm.

Making the general statement 'don't screw with me' results in nothing more than some administrative officers getting their panties in a wad.

There is no harm.

53 posted on 10/16/2012 4:57:27 AM PDT by MamaTexan (I am a Person as Created by the Laws of Nature, not a person as created by the laws of Man)
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