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As a reduction to absurdity, but also a very real threat given prosecutorial overreach: Does your comment rationally questioning anti-prostitution laws “promot
by btown 9y ago
As a reduction to absurdity, but also a very real threat given prosecutorial overreach:
Does your comment rationally questioning anti-prostitution laws “promote prostitution” under the words of the new bill? Does mine? Is any YC staff that sees this also complicit if they don’t remove our comments immediately?
Is a law unconstitutional if the threat of enforcement suppresses protected speech, namely policy debate?
- nokcha 9y ago"Promotion" would likely be interpreted in the sense of commercial advertising. A law that reached advocacy of prostitution in the abstract would be clearly unconstitutional under the standard set by Brandenburg v. Ohio, 395 U.S. 444 (1969). Only speech that proposes a specific illegal act is excluded from First Amendment protection. Pittsburgh Press Co. v. Pittsburgh Commission on Human Relations, 413 U.S. 376 (1973), and United States v. Williams, 553 U.S. 285 (2008).
- jessaustin 9y agoGood grief, Mr. Williams was so dumb. Still, any ruling that leans so heavily on Free Speech Coalition probably isn't terrible.