Is there anything more likely to make you shit your pants out of a mix of fear and anger than getting a federal subpoena out of the blue?
They don't think they're real threats. They're just collecting information. Total Information Awareness – remember? It didn't go away.Well, yes, there is: getting a gag order that prohibits you from speaking publicly about that subpoena and even the gag order itself. Talk about feeling isolated and cast adrift in the home of the free. You can’t even respond honestly when someone asks, “Are you under a court order not to speak?”
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Even when you have done nothing wrong and aren’t the target of an investigation, you can be commanded, at serious financial cost and disruption of your business, to dance to a tune called by the long arm of the law.
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You can read a detailed account of how events, including the lifting of the gag order, played out here. As the legal blogger Ken White of Popehat has argued, the episode is plainly a huge abuse of power.
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For starters, the subpoena was unnecessary because the comments obviously weren’t real threats. […] Even the more outrageous comments—“ “Its (sic) judges like these that should be taken out back and shot” —wouldn’t exactly stir fear in the heart of anyone who has accessed the Web since AOL stopped charging by the hour.
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But here’s the thing us non-lawyers might think of first: To the extent that the feds actually thought these were serious plans to do real harm, why the hell would they respond with a slow-moving subpoena whose deadline was days away?
Nick Gillespie: The Daily Beast
Be afraid. Keep your mouth shut. March in line. That's the message. We're getting it.Even worse, the feds are doing the same to readers who may or may not have any resources to help them comply with legal proceedings that can go very wrong very quickly.
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
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