Wed. Mar 27th, 2024

Can You Annoy the Government?

Supreme Courts say Nope!

Civil Servants i.e. ALL GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES, in the course of needing to access services from these non qualified imbeciles who take government positions of power forget that they are servants and can sometimes be engaged with an unhappy citizen  (their people who they are servants to). We are all human and constitutionally protected speech is just what it is protected, no direct threats to their life or direct physical safety of course may take place in the course of your speech.  You may also never cause a group to rush out of a building causing a stampede (i.e yelling gunman in a crowded mall when there is no gunman or yelling fire in a theater).  Civil servants nowadays assume the position of power, but it is not….Their power is limited to serve their position and power within that position, occasionally they are just another government moron and if you are a fast paced thinker or in a bad mood or suffer from PTSD from war or any other personality disorder you may not want to kiss this dumb shit morons ass, as he is just a government goon moron and you may lose their temper, its human, and constitutionally protected speech!

 

 

Repeated Unwanted Emails to Government Offices or Officials

Offensive speech about people is generally constitutionally protected, unless it falls within one of the narrow First Amendment exceptions, such as threats or defamation. But offensive speech to people can generally be restricted.

But what if the offensive speech is to a government office, to a government official or (sometimes) to a candidate? Let’s set aside speech that falls within an existing First Amendment exception, such as true threats of criminal attack, or so-called “fighting words” (face-to-face personal insults that are likely to start a fight). Can calling government offices or officials to insult them — especially after being told to stop — be punished the way that calling a private individual to insult them might be?

I think the answer should be “no,” and the lower court precedents on the subject seem to agree; but in two recent cases, government officials seem to think that such speech can indeed be criminalized.

U.S. Supreme Court

  • Miller v. US, 230 F 486 at 489 The claim and exercise of a Constitutional right cannot be converted into a crime.
  • Norton v. Shelby County, 118 US 178 (1886) An unconstitutional “law ” is not a law; it confers no rights, imposes no duties, and affords no protection.
  • Chief Justice John Marshall Marbury v. Madison, 5 US (1Cranch) 137, 174, 176 (1803) All laws which are repugnant to the Constitution are null and void. Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. (1 Cranch) 137 (1803), was a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case that established the principle of judicial review in the United States, meaning that American courts have the power to strike down laws and statutes that they find to violate the Constitution of the United States
  • State v. Sutton, 63 Min 147, 65 NW 262, 30 LRA630, AM ST 459 When any court violates the clean and unambiguous language of the Constitution, a fraud is perpetuated, and no one is bound to obey it.
  • Norton vs. Shelby County, 118 US 425 p. 442. “An unconstitutional act is not law; it confers no rights; it imposes no duties; affords no protection; it creates no office; it is in legal contemplation, as inoperative as though it had never been passed.”
  • Bell v. Hood, 71 F.Supp., 813, 816 (1947) U.S.D.C. — So. Dist. CA. History is clear that the first ten amendments to the Constitution were adopted to secure certain common law rights of the people, against invasion by the Federal Government.”
  • SIMMONS v US, supra. “We find it intolerable that one constitutional right should have to be surrendered in order to assert another”
  • Sable Communications of California v. Federal Communications Commission (1989)
    When Congress acted to restrict this growing industry, Sable Communications filed suit in federal district court seeking an injunction against enforcement of the obscene and indecent portions of Section 223(b). The district court denied the injunction, upheld the obscenity portion, and struck down the indecency section of Section 223(b).
  • United States Supreme Court Rosenfeld v. New Jersey (1972) it is well understood that the right of free speech is not absolute at all times and under all circumstances. overly broad and violative of the First Amendment” State v. Rosenfeld 62 N.J. 594 (1973) 303 A.2d 889
  • Miranda vs Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 p. 491 “Where rights secured by the Constitution are involved, there can be no rule making or legislation which would abrogate them.”
  • Cohen v. California (1971) 403 U.S. 15 (1971),  The Supreme Court established that the government generally cannot criminalize the display of profane words in public places. The     Court rejected a fighting words application to a young man who wore a leather jacket with the words “fuck the draft” on it in a public courthouse.
     Held: Absent a more particularized and compelling reason for its actions, the State may not, consistently with the First and Fourteenth Amendments,
     make the simple public display of this single four-letter expletive a criminal offense. 
     Pp. 403 U. S. 22-26. Cohen v. California, 403 U.S. 15 (1971)1 Cal. App. 3d 9481 Cal. Rptr. 503, reversed.

    HARLAN, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which DOUGLAS, BRENNAN, STEWART, and MARSHALL, JJ., joined. BLACKMUN, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which BURGER, C.J., and BLACK, J., joined, and in which WHITE, J., joined in part, post, p. 403 U. S. 27.

  • People v. Boomer (Mich. Ct. App.) (2002) “Allowing a prosecution where one utters ‘insulting’ language could possibly subject a vast percentage of the populace to a misdemeanor conviction,”
  • A.V v St Paul 1992 Justices ruled as unconstitutional a St. Paul ordinance classifying as hate speechwords “that insult, or provoke violence, ‘on the basis of race, color, creed, religion or gender.’ ”
  • Karlan v. City of Cincinnati (1974) Police officers should not be considered “fighting words,” because police officers are trained to exercise a higher degree of constraint than the average citizen.
  • Reno v. American Civil Liberties Union (1997)
    speech on the Internetis entitled to the same high degree of First Amendment protection extended to the print media as opposed to the reduced level given the broadcast media.
  • Bible Believers v. Wayne County (6th Cir.) (2015)
    The case stands for the principle that the First Amendment protects unpopular speech and that government officials should not sanction a heckler’s veto.
  • Albert Krantz v. City of Fort Smith
    A 1998 decision by the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals concerning the distribution and posting of flyers and leaflets. In this ruling informed by the First Amendment’s protection of freedom of expression.
  • Lucas v. Arkansas (1974)416 U.S. 919 (1974)
    The single-sentence Supreme Court decision in Lucas v. Arkansas, 416 U.S. 919 (1974), vacated and remanded this case, along with Kelly v. Ohio, Rosen v. California, and Karlan v. City of Cincinnati, to a state court for further consideration in light of the Court’s opinion in Lewis v. City of New Orleans (1974). Court remanded convictions after saying ordinance prohibiting fighting words violated First Amendment
  • Uzuegbunam v. Preczewski (2021) authorities asked him to stop on the basis that others had complained and that the college prohibited any such speech that “disturbs the peace and/or comfort of person(s).”
  • Lewis v. City of New Orleans (1974)  The U.S. Supreme Court in 1974 overturned a woman’s conviction for cursing at police. Lewis had overturned a New Orleans ordinance on the basis that it violated the First and Fourteenth Amendments by being overbroad in its attempt to prohibit vulgar and offensive speech and “fighting words,” as recognized in Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire (1942) and Gooding v. Wilson (1972).
  • City of Houston v. Hill (1987)  In City of Houston v. Hill, 482 U.S. 451 (1987), the Supreme Court found a city ordinance prohibiting verbal abuse of police officers to be unconstitutionally overbroad and a criminalization of protected speech.

  • STATE of Nebraska, appellee, v. Darren J. DRAHOTA Darren Drahota sent a couple of anonymous insulting emails to William Avery, Drahota’s former political science professor, who was running for the Nebraska Legislature at the time. (Avery was eventually elected and served two terms.) Drahota was convicted of disturbing the peace for sending those emails, but the conviction was reversed in 2010 by the Nebraska Supreme Court. (I have a soft spot in my heart for this case, because it was the first First Amendment case I ever argued in court.)
  • STATE of Iowa, Appellee, v. William James FRATZKE, Appellant  William Fratzke was convicted of harassment “because he wrote a nasty letter to a state highway patrolman to protest a speeding ticket.” The Iowa Supreme Court (1989) reversed, on First Amendment grounds.
  • State of Wisconsin v. Thomas G. Smith Thomas Smith was convicted of disorderly conduct and “unlawful use of a computerized communication system” for leaving two vulgar, insulting comments on a police department’s Facebook page. A one-judge Wisconsin Court of Appeals decision (2014) reversed. (Note that such insults aren’t unprotected “fighting words” because they aren’t face-to-face and thus aren’t likely to lead to an immediate fight.)
  • Commonwealth v. Bigelow – Harvey Bigelow sent two letters to Michael Costello, an elected town council member; both were insulting, and one was vulgar. Bigelow was convicted of criminal harassment, but the Massachusetts high court (2016) reversed: “Because these letters were directed at an elected political official and primarily discuss issues of public concern — Michael’s qualifications for and performance as a selectman — the letters fall within the category of constitutionally protected political speech at the core of the First Amendment.” And this was true even though the letters were sent to him at home.  the case law link was above, but you can actually read the newspaper article of his exact doings here
  • People v. Powers, (2011) 193 Cal.App.4th 158,166. (“We conclude that the recordings appellant left on the customer service line cannot constitute substantial evidence that appellant violated section 653m, subdivision (a) [California’s annoying phone calls law]. The messages are annoying rants concerning customer service. It is reasonable for someone to be annoyed by appellant’s language. But the vulgarities uttered cannot be described as obscene, especially in the context of a customer service line maintained to take complaints. Except in extreme cases, we doubt that a person whose job it is to receive consumer complaints has a right to privacy against unwanted intrusion.”) THE PEOPLE,  v. DAVID THOMAS POWERS  determined although they may be a little annoying they were NOT ILLEGAL!
  • Ion Popa left seven messages containing racist insults on the answering machine of the head federal prosecutor in D.C. — Eric Holder, who eventually became attorney general. He was convicted of telephone harassment, which banned all anonymous calls made “with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass.”
    But the D.C. Circuit (1989) expressly held that the First Amendment
    prevented the statute from applying to “public or political discourse,”
    such as condemnation of political officials (even left expressly for that official).
How did the US Supreme Court test speech ? For Obscenities the Supreme Court has went for Hicklin rule but that have been dropped in place of 
the Miller Test in California v. Miller come up with a way to test speech outside of obscene? How does the Supreme Court determine if words are 
a is a TRUE THREAT or just free speech. Watts v. United States - True Threat Test

It be nice if they include the whole law

“Laws that make it a crime to express yourself in a certain way run the risk of violating the constitutional right to freedom of speech. Because of this, courts have to be very careful about letting someone be convicted under a law like California’s annoying phone calls law. So judges have made sure to keep the definition of ‘obscene language’ pretty narrow. This means there are many options for defending yourself against charges that you made annoying or harassing phone calls using obscene language.”

 

you can’t be convicted unless the prosecutor can prove —  beyond a reasonable doubt — that this is what you intended.24 And if you had some other good-faith intention or business purpose for making the call or sending the communication, there’s a good chance the prosecutor won’t be able to prove this and you can fight the annoying phone calls charges on this basis.

 

if you like you can read every 1st amendment backing we can find click here


Civil Harassment

In general, civil harassment is abuse, threats of abuse, stalking, sexual assault, or serious harassment by someone you have not dated and do NOT have a close family relationship with, like a neighbor, a roommate, or a friend (that you have never dated). It is also civil harassment if the abuse is from a family member that is not included in the list under domestic violence. So, for example, if the abuse is from an uncle or aunt, a niece or nephew, or a cousin, it is considered civil harassment and NOT domestic violence.
The civil harassment laws say “harassment” is:

  • Unlawful violence, like assault or battery or stalking, OR
  • A credible threat of violence, AND
  • The violence or threats seriously scare, annoy, or harass someone and there is no valid reason for it.

“Credible threat of violence” means intentionally saying something or acting in a way that would make a reasonable person afraid for his or her safety or the safety of his or her family. A “credible threat of violence” includes following or stalking someone or making harassing calls or sending harassing messages (by phone, mail, or e-mail) over a period of time (even if it is a short time).

Read about the law in Code of Civil Procedure section 527.6 .

 

NONE OF THE 3 ELEMENTS OCCURRED AND THERE WAS REASON FOR MY CALLS ANYWAY

 

 

Read MORE Below – click the links

 


CURRENT TEST = We also have the TheBrandenburg testfor incitement to violence

We also have the The Incitement to Imminent Lawless Action Test

We also have the True Threats TestVirginia v. Black is most comprehensive Supreme Court definition

We also have the Miller v. California – 3 Prong Obscenity Test (Miller Test) – 1st Amendment 1st

We also have the Obscenity and Pornography ; 1st Amendment

We also have the Watts v. United StatesTrue Threat Test1st Amendment

We also have the Clear and Present Danger Test

We also have the Gravity of the Evil Test

We also have the Miller v. California – 3 Prong Obscenity Test (Miller Test) – 1st Amendment 1st

We also have the Obscenity and Pornography ; 1st Amendment

We also have the Freedom of the Press – Flyers, Newspaper, Leaflets, Peaceful Assembly – 1st Amendment lots of SCOTUS Rulings 

We also have the Insulting letters to politician’s home are constitutionally protected, unless they are ‘true threats’ lots of SCOTUS Rulings 

We also have the Introducing TEXT & EMAIL Digital Evidence in California Courts lots of SCOTUS Rulings 


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