Monday, May 04, 2009

There Goes My Hate Mail   [Jonah Goldberg]

I was hobnobbing with Hollywood glitterati — and taking my daughter to the Santa Monica pier — last week so maybe I missed the discussion of this great news: Rep. Linda Sanchez and 14 other Representatives want to make about half of my email illegal! Here's the relevant language from the proposed bill:

Whoever transmits in interstate or foreign commerce any communication, with the intent to coerce, intimidate, harass, or cause substantial emotional distress to a person, using electronic means to support severe, repeated, and hostile behavior, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both....

["Communication"] means the electronic transmission, between or among points specified by the user, of information of the user's choosing, without change in the form or content of the information as sent and received; ...

["Electronic means"] means any equipment dependent on electrical power to access an information service, including email, instant messaging, blogs, websites, telephones, and text messages.

Eugene Volokh has the details.

05/04 11:32 AMShare