Posted by Eugene Volokh:
Jail Time for Sending Racist Message to a City Councilman:
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2009_05_24-2009_05_30.shtml#1243376308
The Columbian (Vancouver, Wash.), reports in its May 20 issue:
[Christopher Reinhold] is serving an eight-day sentence in the
Clark County Jail and will perform 20 days of community service
[with the Battle Ground Cultural Diversity Task Force, which was
formed in response to the incident] for sending racist e-mails last
year about Battle Ground City Councilman Paul Zandamela....
Reinhold ... pleaded guilty March 30 to two counts of
cyberstalking, a gross misdemeanor defined as using language meant
to "harass, intimidate, torment or embarrass." ...
Zimmerman ... will also have to [pay $543 in fines and] attend two
YWCA Eliminating Racism workshops and write a letter of apology to
Zandamela....
According to court documents, Reinhold e-mailed a message Jan. 8,
2008, to city council members about Zandamela, a black man who was
sworn in as a councilman the previous evening. "Our city government
must be corrupt to have this (derogatory term) as an elected
official," read the message in part. The message included four
slurs and was signed, "Sincerely, a (derogatory term) hater."
'Anonymous, cowardly'
After Mayor Mike Ciraulo wrote back and told the council to ignore
the message from "battleground anonymous," Ciraulo received a
second message calling him a "stupid (derogatory term) lover." ...
What about the First Amendment? Well, first, "Defense attorney Jon
McMullen had considered arguing that the comments were protected as
free speech, but facing the possibility of federal charges -- which
could have netted Reinhold more than a year in prison -- his client
decided to plead guilty."
And, second, "'It's not free speech,' the judge said Monday. 'It's
anonymous, it's cowardly, it's hateful and it was racist.'" What is
that supposed to mean? There's no anonymous speech exception to the
First Amendment, no cowardly speech exception, no hateful speech
exception, and no racist speech exception. Perhaps this was quoted out
of context, and the context somehow radically changes the judge's
meaning. But if it was quoted in context, then the judge's rationale
strikes me as very wrong.
Finally, for what strikes me as the much better view on the First
Amendment issue, see [1]U.S. v. Popa, the D.C. Circuit decision cited
in [2]this post.
References
1. http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2008_04_27-2008_05_03.shtml#1209665198
2. http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2008_04_27-2008_05_03.shtml#1209665198
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