This sort of thing is one more reason why confidence in government is at all-time lows.
Nick Gillespie|Jun. 25, 2015 8:38 am
Regular readers of Reason.com know all about the recent federal subpoena and gag order we received.
The subpoena asked for identifying information we had on a half-dozen readers who left angry comments on a post about the verdict in the Silk Road Trial.
The comments ranged from suggesting the judge in the case should burn in hell to suggesting, in a well-known Internet homage to the movie Fargo, she be fed “feet-first” into a woodchipper. As Matt Welch and I have written, “The comments are hyperbolic, in questionable taste–and fully within the norms of Internet commentary.” They certainly don’t rise to the level of threat that should trigger requests from federal prosecutors.
We notified the commenters, who could have moved to quash the subpoena. Then the government hit us with a gag order, prohibiting us from talking about even the existence of the subpoena and the gag order. We fought to get the gag order lifted and once it was, we’ve been talking about the case.
I’ve got a new column up at The Daily Beast that gives more background on the matter. Here are some snippets:
https://reason.com/blog/2015/06/25/how-the-feds-asked-me-to-rat-out-comment
