Shocking the First Amendment

Shocking the First Amendment

“” This month Tennessee amended an anti-harassment law to make it a crime to “communicate with another person or transmit or display an image in a manner in which there is a reasonable expectation that the image will be viewed by the victim without legitimate purpose.” The law applies to any communications including posts to social networks or personal web pages which are essentially public forums. It covers not only posts “with the malicious intent to frighten, intimidate or cause emotional distress” but also to anything that the poster “knows, or reasonably should know, would frighten, intimidate or cause emotional distress to a similarly situated person of reasonable sensibilities.” To prove a crime has been committed simply requires that someone viewing a post claim they were "frightened, intimidated or emotionally distressed by it. [Full]

I remember being in (it was Tennessee Eugene)  one day, ca. 1990, when the local hot topic of debate was a bill making the thrashing of a flag burner a misdemeanor carrying no civil liability and a $5.00 fine. The bill did not pass. For several years Blogger automatically displayed a header on all blogs that invited anyone to click "Report offensive material."  I was able to avoid being reported several times a day by ratbastard democrat.commers by using third-party code to remove the  invitation. . These examples were at the time anomalies; today they're trends.  I can't cite names, but over the past few years more than a few congressional Democrats have suggested, attempted to, or otherwise endorsed legislation that would criminalize content they deemed  offensive.  To quote Sergeant Phil Esterhaus (Hill Street Blues), "Hey, let's be careful out there. The place is teeming with ratbastard commie cork suckers."  Lock and Load.  Click Click