Go To Jail For Visiting a Web Site? Top Law Prof Talks Up the Idea (slate.com)

David Rothman writes: Eric Posner, the fourth most-cited law professor in the U.S., says the government may need to jail you if you even visit an ISIS site after enough warnings. He says, "Never before in our history have enemies outside the United States been able to propagate genuinely dangerous ideas on American territory in such an effective way—and by this I mean ideas that lead directly to terrorist attacks that kill people. The novelty of this threat calls for new thinking about limits on freedom of speech.

The law would provide graduated penalties. After the first violation, a person would receive a warning letter from the government; subsequent violations would result in fines or prison sentences. The idea would be to get out the word that looking at ISIS-related websites, like looking at websites that display child pornography, is strictly forbidden" There would be exemptions for Washington-blessed journalists and others. Whew! Alas, this man isn't Donald Trump — he is a widely respected University of Chicago faculty member writing in Slate.

Comments

Re:land of the the free ?

[KGIII]

Well, not to worry then. We'll continue to handle them on your behalf and when the bad guys come and try to take your stuff we will help save you, again, and pay for your country to be rebuilt, again. Maybe the next time, however, you could actually pay back that money like the UK did. That'd be nice. If you could just stop bombing yourselves into rubble every few years, well, that'd be even better but that seems unlikely.

Re:Send the prof a shortened link

[PRMan]

Well, what do you expect from a bunch of ultra-liberals at U-Chicago? A reasonable reading of the Constitution? Not likely.