Excellent article about freedom of speech issues involved in some terrorism cases.
"This case is being used by the government to really narrow First Amendment activity in dangerous new ways," says Nancy Murray of the Massachusetts branch of the American Civil Liberties Union. "It might be speech that horrifies people, but it's the nature of the First Amendment to protect that speech, unless it's leading to imminent lawless action."
Civil liberties advocates say the case represents a slippery slope.
In the 2010 case Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project, which decided whether or not providing nonviolent aid (such as legal advice) to terrorist groups constitutes material support for terrorism, the Supreme Court ruled that even protected speech can be a criminal act if it occurs at the direction of a terrorist organization. Based on that ruling, you could be convicted of materially supporting terrorism merely for translating a document or putting an extremist video online, depending on your intentions.How ironic that this attack on the freedom of speech is taking place under the stewardship of a President who was a constitutional law professor.
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