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Unbelievably busy days

By 4L

Who would think December would be so hectic? In either case, my schedule is finally starting to settle down again and so I thought I would chime in on what I think is the most interesting internet/free speech/criminal law question around nowadays and that is this cyberspace myspace case in Missouri. The brief facts are that one girl (Megan Meier) pretended to be a boy named Josh, created a relationship with another girl who became devastated when "Josh" told her something that upset this girl, who then hung herself. I'm going to have to spend some more time thinking about this one, and I can't imagine this bizarro fact pattern would show up on the east coast, but the case certainly could represent an interesting intersection of free speech and criminal liability. I would imagine the national press this case has already gotten will spurn some great commentary from more educated free speech enthusiasts.

My thoughts, and they are really only limited to a couple of articles since I'm almost two weeks behind in my RSS feeder, is that free speech may not protect her on this one. Unlike being a pamphleteer shouting from his internet soapbox, this is much more targeted. Somehow I don't think the framers had this sort of thing in mind in protecting speech. But I guess that will be up to either the Missouri courts or some Missouri district court to decide. Should be interesting.

I will save my comments about the recent Supreme Court crack/powder cocaine case after I've read more about it. Since my clerkship doesn't have too much to do with sentencing, I'm not sure how much my ivory tower opinion would matter on this one.

I'm also thinking of taking another bar or at least exploring other parts of the east coast. More on that after I investigate this whole reciprocity idea.

Full post as published by The Once and Future Lawyer on December 10, 2007 (boomark / email).