Ninth Circuit ruling re webpage threats

[axlotl at hushmail.com]

Participants and spectators in Jim Bell's trial next week in Seattle might 
be interested in this case, released by the Ninth Circuit today, concerning 
the use of a web page to publish addresses of third parties, and whether 
or not such publication is protected by the First Amendment where it's foreseeable 
that unknown persons could make use of the addresses to cause injury or 
embarassment -

<http://laws.lp.findlaw.com/9th/9935320.html>

As the Ninth Circuit writes -

Political speech may not be punished just because it
makes it more likely that someone will be harmed at some
unknown time in the future by an unrelated third party. In
Brandenburg v. Ohio, 395 U.S. 444 (1969) (per curiam), the
Supreme Court held that the First Amendment protects speech
that encourages others to commit violence, unless the speech
is capable of "producing imminent lawless action. " Id. at 447.
It doesn't matter if the speech makes future violence more
likely; advocating "illegal action at some indefinite future
time" is protected. Hess v. Indiana , 414 U.S. 105, 108 (1973)
(per curiam). If the First Amendment protects speech advocat-
ing violence, then it must also protect speech that does not
advocate violence but still makes it more likely. 

The Ninth Circuit held that, where the web page publisher(s) themselves 
did not communicate a threat to harm the persons mentioned on the web page,
 the publication of the addresses was protected by the First Amendment.
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