Editor of 'Reason' Discusses Federal Subpoena To Unmask Commenters

mi points out an article from Nick Gillespie, editor of libertarian website Reason, who was recently asked by the federal government to provide identifying information on anonymous commenters from one of the site's blog posts. Not only was Reason issued a subpoena for the commenters's identities, but they were also placed under a gag order, preventing them from even mentioning it to somebody who wasn't their lawyer. Gillespie says the comments in question were "hyperbolic, in questionable taste–and fully within the norms of Internet commentary." He continues: To the extent that the feds actually thought these were serious plans to do real harm, why the hell would they respond with a slow-moving subpoena whose deadline was days away? By spending five minutes doing the laziest, George Jetson-style online "research" (read: Google and site searches), they would have found publicly available info on some of the commenters. I'm talking things like websites and Google+ pages. One of the commenters had literally posted thousands of comments at Reason.com, from which it is clear that he (assuming it is a he) is not exactly a threat to anyone other than common decency."

Comments

Welcome to the USSA Comrade

[random coward]

When did the United States become the society we were told the USSR was during the cold war?

Re:Fairly clear

[antiperimetaparalogo]

here's the problem though. there's nothing remotely illegal about the statements that were made. almost all speech is protected under the first amendment, especially speech about political matters.

I am Greek, i am not so informed about the first amendment, i know very well that in the USA free speech is respected and protected more than anywhere else in the world (much more than Europe for example), but...

There are some specific exemptions, including making imminent and specific threats. So something like, "I'm going to go to this judge's house at X address on Y date and do this thing". The commenters didn't do that.

...you mean that the phrase "It's judges like these that will be taken out back and shot." should be taken like... what i quoted from Telly Savalas ("Greeks... they don't threaten - they utter prophecies!")? Hmmm... as a Greek i must inform you that my fellow Greek Telly Savalas WAS making a threat!

So it's clear on its face that the comments are free speech and not actionable. so why was the govt looking into taking action? that is the question mark.

Because the guy writing "It's judges like these that will be taken out back and shot." may be a Greek? Also remember: a treats may be used just as a way to terrorize a judge, BUT a civilized society can NOT function with judges living in fear.