Bill Would Declare Your Blog a Weapon

Mike writes "Law prof Eugene Volokh blogs about a US House of Representatives bill proposed by Rep. Linda T. Sanchez and 14 others that could make it a federal felony to use your blog, social media like MySpace and Facebook, or any other Web media 'to cause substantial emotional distress through "severe, repeated, and hostile" speech.' Rep. Sanchez and colleagues want to make it easier to prosecute any objectionable speech through a breathtakingly broad bill that would criminalize a wide range of speech protected by the First Amendment. The bill is called The Megan Meier Cyberbullying Prevention Act, and if passed into law (and if it survives constitutional challenge) it looks almost certain to be misused."

Comments

Re:Covered By Twenty Percent of the Bill of Rights

[stewbacca]

Oh wow, now that I see what that is, I'm highly offended. I wasn't inferring that I don't do those things so I have nothing to worry about, as your "First they came for" insult infers. If you read my entire post, it should be clear that I understand the risks. That's why I said I dont' support this bill, but the ultimate success or failure of this bill does not depend on my opinion.

Actually, I don't even HAVE a blog--I was merely pointing out that if you personally don't write stuff that would violate this law, then there would be no way for you to be in violation of the law. Disagree with a law all you want, but your only recourse, if this thing were to pass, would be to challenge its constitutionality. You don't get to make the rules about what is constitutional or not, is all I'm saying. Your interpretation of the constitution, surprise, is not the final say, as much as you'd probably like to think it is.