JasonDJ
My client isn’t very good at showing context. What is this about? Biden or Swift?
Anyway…violent threats aren’t protected speech…
• The First Amendment does not protect violent or unlawful conduct, even if the person engaging in it intends to express an idea. United States v. O’Brien, 391 U.S. 367, 376 (1968).
• The First Amendment does not protect speech that incites imminent violence or lawlessness. Brandenburg v. Ohio, 395 U.S. 444, 447 (1969).
And also a federal felony…
It is is felony under federal law to communicate a threat to injure or kidnap another person online, by phone or mail, or using other interstate channels. 18 U.S.C. § 875©
It is a felony under federal law to intentionally “solicit, command, induce, or otherwise endeavor to persuade” another person to engage in a crime of violence against a person or property. 18 U.S.C. § 373.
(PDF link hosted by Georgetown University Law Center) https://www.law.georgetown.edu/icap/wp-content/uploads/sites/32/2020/12/Fact-Sheet-on-Threats-Related-to-the-Election.pdf
You’re technically correct, but you’re still an asshole.
Punishment for yelling fire in a crowded theater isn’t a first amendment violation. Yelling fire in a crowded theater when there isn’t a fire, you know there isn’t a fire, and a stampede occurs resulting in a death, is involuntarily manslaughter.
Punishment for death threats isn’t a first amendment violation, but it is usually coercion.
And publishing classified data without authorization is illegal, but it’s highly nuanced. It can be considered a first amendment right of the press to publish classified documents in some circumstances, but how they obtained those documents is definitely scrutinized. Then there’s always the question of “what is press” nowadays when literally everybody carries their own personal printing press in their pocket.