Another Criminal Libel Law Falls

The Washington Post's Volokh Conspiracy blog reports that a Montana trial court has held that state's criminal libel law unconstitutional. This leaves only a dozen states with such statutes, even though their constitutionality is suspect.

Georgia Formally Repeals Criminal Libel

Georgia has formally repealed its criminal defamation statute, Ga. Code § 16-11-40, 23 years after it was held unconstitutional by the Georgia Supreme Court.

Another One Bites the Dust: Minnesota's Criminal Libel Law Struck Down

The Minnesota Court of Appeals has held that the state's criminal libel law (Minn. Stat. section 609.765), which allows for punishment of up to one year imprisonment and/or a fine of up to $3,000 for statements "which expose[] a person or a group, class or association to hatred, contempt, ridicule, degradation or disgrace in society, or injury to business or occupation,"is unconstitutionally overbroad. Minnesota v. Turner, No. A14-1408 (Minn. App. May 26, 2015).

No Gun Charge Against Meet the Press Host

In a letter to NBC's lawyers, District of Columbia Attorney General Irvin B. Nathan announced that while the exhibition of an empty magazine capable of holding up to 30 rounds of ammunition by "Meet the Press" host David Gregory was illegal under the District's gun control laws, his office "has determined to exercise its prosecutorial discretion to decline to bring criminal charges against Mr. Gregory ... ."

D.C. Police Investigating "Meet the Press"

UPDATE: District of Columbia Attorney General Irvin B. Nathan has announced that there will be no prosecution in this case.

District of Columbia police have announced that they are investigating David Gregory's display of a 30-bullet gun magazine during an interview with National Rifle Association head Wayne LaPierre. The interview was on "Meet the Press," which is broadcast from NBC's Washington, D.C. studios.

10th Circuit Revives Criminal Libel Suit

In a decision released on Monday (July 19), the federal 10th Circuit Court of Appeals revived a civil rights lawsuit brought by a student whose home was searched and computer was seized after he mocked a university professor on a parody website.  By reviving the suit, the appeals court also questioned the validity of applying Colorado's criminal libel statute to satire and parody. Mink v. Knox, No. 08-1250 (10th Cir. July 19, 2010).

7th Circuit Holds Blogger Can Be Prosecuted For Threatening Juror

(cross posted at the Citizen Media Law Project)
An alleged white supremacist can be prosecuted under a federal solicitation statute for posting on his blog the name, address and photograph of a juror who helped convict the "leader of a white supremacist organization" of soliciting the murder of a federal district court judge and obstruction of justice, the federal Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals held in a ruling in late June. U.S. v. White, No. 09-2916 (7th Cir. 2010).

Prosecutors Get Creative Online

The Internet Cases blog reports on a California appeals court decision allowing prosecution under the state's "false personation" statute (Cal. Penal Code section 529) of a man who created a fake MySpace profile of a church pastor, including statements that the pastor has engaged in homosexual activity and drug use. 

Man Bites Dog: Prosecutor Pays a Price for Chasing Commenters

(cross posted at the Citizen Media Law Project) 

When a dog bites a man, that is not news, because it happens so often. But if a man bites a dog, that is news. — attributed to  New York Sun city editor John B. Bogart (1848- 1921)

Unfortunately, it's become an increasingly common occurrence: a public official, outraged over something posted about him/her anonymously on the Internet, asks a court to issue a subpoena to find out the identity of the poster(s). The Legal Threats Database contains a number of examples, and the "Legal Protections for Anonymous Speech" section of the Legal Guide lays out the legal analyses that courts have used to evaluate these subpoenas. 

So it wasn't too surprising when Pittsburg County, Oklahoma District Attorney Jim Bob Miller issued a subpoena to Harold King, operator of the McAlester Watercooler forum site, seeking information, including (oddly) social security numbers, to identify about 35 pseudonymous posters on the site.  But what made the case unusual was that D.A. Miller was one of the individuals who had filed a complaint for criminal defamation (details here) against King with the local police. 

Florida Sees Gangs in Social Networks, and Prosecutes

(cross posted at the Citizen Media Law Project) 
In what appears to be the first use of a new Florida law that criminalizes the promotion of gangs on the Internet, the Lee County Sheriff’s Office arrested 15 men over the contents of their MySpace pages, which prosecutors claim advertised and promoted gang membership.

Crime Online May Mean More Time

(cross posted at the Citizen Media Law Project)
In Hawaii, a 22-year-old former hospital worker was recently sentenced to one year in jail, five years probation and 200 hours of community service on a felony charge of "unauthorized computer access to confidential records" (apparently under Haw. Rev. Stat. §708-892, Computer damage in the first degree) after she obtained a patient's records stating that he was HIV-positive and gave them to the patient's sister-in-law, who posted them on her MySpace page. The prosecutor had recommended a sentence of only 30 days, but Circuit Judge Randal Lee reportedly said during sentencing that "Young people in this society have to realize that the Internet is not something that can be taken advantage of. You can't use the Internet to do unlawful conduct."