Source: United States Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of New York.
I have some sympathy for the principled notion that purveyors of disinformation deserve to be punished when it can be shown that actual persons were harmed in a material way. Still, I am alarmed by this conviction.
Mackey was prosecuted for Criminal Conspiracy Against Rights. His attorneys attempted a First Amendment defense at trial, but the jury was not persuaded. Thus the case establishes a precedent that First Amendment law can be ignored in cases where the complaint is tried as a Conspiracy Against Rights.
Should the conviction survive appeals, the government will be empowered to abridge the right of free speech just by — in effect — calling speech something different.
Tidewater News and Opinion Forum 
I’m all in favor of suppressing the idiot vote.
Seriously, that’s a new twist on a very old joke, “To reduce long lines, Republicans are to vote on Tuesday and Democrats will vote on Wednesday.”
Anyone who took that seriously should be ruled incompetent.
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RE: “Anyone who took that seriously should be ruled incompetent.”
I’m OK with letting incompetent people rule themselves out. I’m not OK with prosecutorial strategies to sidestep the 1st Amendment.
Either 1A is sacred, or it isn’t. I think it should be sacred.
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Sacred? Yes. Limitations attached to it? Yes.
The old saw about yelling fire in a crowded movies house comes to mind.
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RE: “The old saw about yelling fire in a crowded movies house comes to mind.”
That’s unfortunate. Sometimes yelling “Fire!” is the right thing to do.
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Yet when it is NOT????
And in some cases, the word is proceeded by “Ready, Aim”…
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An even funnier joke was to tell GA republicans not to trust mail in ballots and that the election was rigged.
So we got two Democrats for Senators.
Probably because it got rid of the incompetent voters.
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