![]() ![]() As such, it’s only natural that law enforcement takes such threats seriously. Threatening to kill a federal judge is especially problematic assassinations of federal judges do happen from time to time. To be sure, I have no problem with the feds seeking to locate and prosecute people who actually threaten to commit murder - which, if transmitted in interstate commerce, is a federal crime under Title 18 USC. Unless the Department of Justice is investigating a credible threat to Judge Forrest with some plausible connection to the Reason comments at issue, this subpoena will serve only to chill hyperbolic - but nonetheless protected - political speech by anonymous Internet commenters.Īnd if Reason decides to stand up for its users’ rights, the resulting court battle will amount to a waste of federal law enforcement resources that could instead help bring actual criminals to justice, as Tim Lynch reminds us. Even if this subpoena is valid under current law - more on that angle in a bit - the government made a serious mistake in seeking to force Reason to hand over information that could uncover the six commenters’ identities. So do the Cato Institute’s Tim Lynch and Techdirt’s Mike Masnick, among many others. Ilya Somin, writing at The Volokh Conspiracy, also objects to the subpoena. Popehat’s Ken White is quite troubled by the government’s decision to issue this subpoena. The subpoena demands from Reason information about the six users, including their email and Internet Protocol (IP) addresses - which, if disclosed, could enable the government to uncover the true identities of the commenters, perhaps after another round of subpoenas are sent to the users’ respective Internet Service Providers. This doesn’t mean a grand jury actually asked about the commenters instead, in federal criminal investigations, it’s typically up to the US Attorney to decide when to issue a subpoena “ on behalf” of a grand jury. Within hours, the office of Preet Bharara, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, sent Reason a subpoena for these commenters’ identifying information “in connection with an official criminal investigation of a suspected felony being conducted by a federal grand jury.” One commenter argued that “judges like these … should be taken out back and shot.” Another user, purporting to correct the preceding comment, wrote that “it’s judges like these that will be taken out back and shot.” A follow-up comment suggested the use of a “wood chipper,” so as not to “waste ammunition.” And a user expressed hope that “there is a special place in hell reserved for that horrible woman.” This sentence was met with mixed reactions, with many commentators criticizing Judge Forrest for handing down what they perceived as an exceedingly harsh sentence.Ī few Reason users, some of whom may have followed Reason’s extensive coverage of the fascinating trial, apparently found Ulbricht’s sentence especially infuriating. In late May, Judge Katherine Forrest, who sits on the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, sentenced Ulbricht to life in prison. These comments came in response to a May 31 post by Nick Gillespie about the trial and sentencing of Ross Ulbricht, who was convicted in February of running an Internet-based narcotics and money laundering platform known as Silk Road. The subpoena demands that Reason disclose “all identifying information” it has regarding six pseudonymous users who posted comments about the death and afterlife of a federal judge on Reason’s Hit & Run blog. In 2019 he was chosen as the first ever violist in the Rebanks Family Fellowship & International Performance Residency Program in Toronto.Our friends over at the Reason Foundation, a venerable libertarian think tank and publisher of Reason magazine, recently received a grand jury subpoena from a federal prosecutor in New York, reports Ken White at Popehat. His compositions have been featured in diverse spaces and communities, including in Toronto’s Koerner Hall, The Violin Channel, in Los Angeles’s Skid Row, and on ABC Channel 7 News LA. Ryan is an innovative composer-performer under the moniker Radia, combining inspiration of classical, folk, electronic, and hip-hop music with a loop pedal. ![]() Ryan graduated from the Colburn Conservatory of Music in 2019 and recent performance highlights include an appearance on NBA Champion and former Toronto Raptors player Serge Ibaka’s Instagram Live show, How Talented Are You?, and a featured performance of Christos Hatzis’s The Mega4 Meta4, as an invited soloist in the 21C Music Festival at The Royal Conservatory of Music. Hailed as a “lovely violist” (The WholeNote), and chosen as a “Top 30 Under 30” by CBC Music (upcoming 2021), Ryan Davis is swiftly emerging as a singular creative voice. Colburn / Upcoming Events / 2021–22 Season Overview / Ryan Davis Ryan Davis ![]()
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