Gunther Glaub "This Man’s Protest Is Free Speech"

[AnOwlCalledSage]

No wonder US lawyers have a bad reputation when they can write drivel opinion pieces like this:

We go through life thinking the First Amendment is followed in the U.S. In practice, that isn’t always true. A case in point is that of Gunther Glaub, who was convicted and sentenced to five years’ probation for a quirky protest in which he sent the bill for his new Chevrolet Camaro to the U.S. Department of Agriculture — and scribbled on it, “Thank you for paying this debt.”

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/artic ... tizen-case

[notorial dissent]

I have to say that I think that article is both poorly written and even more poorly thought out, and speaks poorly of both the teacher and the student. The actual articles about the trial tell a different story.

newspaper article about the trial

[Judge Roy Bean]

Some things the writer all-too-conveniently failed to mention from the actual ruling, as in SCOTUS cases cited by the 10th:

Alvarez, 567 U.S. at 723 (“Where false claims are made to effect a fraud or secure moneys or other valuable considerations . . . it is well established that the Government may restrict speech without affronting the First Amendment.”); see also United States v. Stevens, 559 U.S. 460, 468 (2010) (listing the following categories of speech as those that are not protected by the First Amendment: obscenity, defamation, fraud, incitement, and speech used as an integral part of conduct in violation of a valid criminal statute).

[AnOwlCalledSage]

Some things the writer all-too-conveniently failed to mention from the actual ruling...

It did strike me that using the author's definition of free speech, you could go into a bank, pretend to have a concealed handgun in a pocket, tell the teller to "Stick 'em up" and claim 1A rights when caught if you had this idiot or one of his students defending you.

[notorial dissent]

Some things the writer all-too-conveniently failed to mention from the actual ruling...

It did strike me that using the author's definition of free speech, you could go into a bank, pretend to have a concealed handgun in a pocket, tell the teller to "Stick 'em up" and claim 1A rights when caught if you had this idiot or one of his students defending you.

Yeah, pretty much the same thing that came to me as I read that.