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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   32935 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of October 10, 2022

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The take I'm seeing is that this is moreso the fault of Jones and his lawyers rather than the actual reprehensibleness (or lack thereof) of his speech. Specifically, this verdict was a default judgment and only happened after Jones missed scheduled court dates, refused to comply with the discovery process, and his attorney simply didn't present any sort of First Amendment defense at all. (And that's not even covering the lawyer sending his text messages, allegedly on accident, to the opponent's lawyer, nor the failure of them to identify it as protected or privileged communication.)

Now, I don't know if that's accurate, but if true then it means free speech isn't legally in danger. Probably.

A defendant and his lawyers refusing to comply with the process looks rather similar to the court playing calvinball with him to make sure he loses. Jones didn't hire fly-by-night incompetents to defend him.

If this is true, we should see many more such default judgements against political defendants going forward. I suspect we will not. Does this board include a remind me feature?

They don't need to go that far; the chilling effect will work wonders.

I am kind of worried about exactly how we should hold someone responsible for enabling other lunatics and worried that Jones is a particularly bad test case to decide it.

But if Jones does not give enough of a shit to show up to court, I do not see why I should give a shit about him, either. Asking me to care more than the subject is ripe for abuse.

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