Perhaps one of these days the citizens of Minnesota will make sure that their children are taught the differences between legislative, executive and judicial powers to make it more difficult for activist judges to usurp legislative powers.
Does telling someone to ‘take a running jump’ or ‘drop dead’ encourage suicide? I’d say there’s a fine line between trash talk and this creepy “kill yourself while I masturbate” filth on the internet.
Then I Encourage all of you Liberals, Democrats, Progressives, and any of your supporters to “BITE The Bullet!”
These judges should cut their own throats.
Does the Moral Absolutes ping list still exist?
Well in that case..liberals..Commie..progressive loons..do us all a favor and well ya know..jump off a cliff
Good luck to anyone who wants to sit down and write laws covering every despicable, morally repugnant things people do. Then good luck enforcing them all.
IMO, this is actually a good ruling. The problem with such a statute is that it is ripe for abuse by overzealous prosecutors. Aside from the obvious First Amendment concerns, there may moral hazards that result from such a statute, such as the diminution of people willing to counsel such persons.
“William F. Melchert-Dinkel had been found guilty under a law that made it illegal to “advise, encourage, or assist” in a suicide.”
The problem is the wording of the statute: “advise, encourage, or assist”. Who gets to characterize the nature of someone’s conversation with a another person who may be contemplating suicide? It seems to me that such a statute could potentially imperil counselors trying to work through the issues with such a person contemplating suicide. Say, for example, a counselor were to discuss various options a person may feel they have, one of which might be suicide. Under such a statute, I fear that law enforcement might be able to accuse a counselor doing so of “advising” or “encouraging” the person, just because suicide came up in their discussions. As I said, ripe for abuse.
So now there is also no such thing as hate speech, there is just end of life counseling?
I think this is something of a finesse point, which often happens in first amendment cases.
For example, if someone is pestering you, and you tell them to jump off a building, it could technically be construed as unlawful encouragement.
However, if you taunt someone you know to be psychologically fragile and suicidal, it is a different kettle of fish.
Likewise, if you encourage someone to kill themselves as part of a scheme to defraud, say to commit suicide but make it appear to be a homicide, for insurance money.
This case was particularly tricky, in that the motive could have been sexual gratification, sadism, or who knows what all else.
The bottom line is that the law should be rewritten by the legislature to take account of the complexity of the first amendment. This is not easy, as even the Supreme Court has fouled this up a few times and had to reverse itself.
What should be encouraged is that the low-life members of Minnesota high court be indicted, tried, convicted, and executed for giving aid and comfort to the enemy.
soooo,
Then according to this court,
it is ok then for me to write obammy and the mooch encouring them both to off themselves?