Free Speech
Chelsea Manning is Back in Jail After Standing for Press Freedom in Secret WikiLeaks Case
Press F to pay respects for Chelsea
Chelsea Manning, the trans woman who served time in prison for leaking sensitive materials exposing US military corruption to WikiLeaks, is going back to jail after being held in contempt of court for refusing to speak to a secret grand jury believed to be targeting Julian Assange.
“I’ve found you in contempt,” Judge Claude M. Hilton said to Manning during the public ruling, according to reports from the Washington Post. The Judge claims Manning will remain incarcerated until “either until you purge yourself or the end of the life of the grand jury.”
Manning released the following statement last night before showing up in court today:
tomorrow i’m facing a sealed contempt hearing for refusing to testify at a secret grand jury over my 2010 disclosures
statement: pic.twitter.com/M1uhssUzXh
take our poll - story continues belowCompleting this poll grants you access to Big League Politics updates free of charge. You may opt out at anytime. You also agree to this site's Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.— Chelsea E. Manning (@xychelsea) March 7, 2019
Independent journalist Ford Fischer of News2Share caught Manning as she addressed reporters before she walked into court and was thrown back in jail.
WikiLeaks released the following tweet about the treatment of Manning:
Note that Manning is not jailed as a "punishment". She has formally been jailed to "coerce" her into testifying against our journalists (including Assange) for publishing the truth about the US government. She will remain in jail until she breaks and complies or wins on appeal.
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) March 8, 2019
Whistle-blowers such as famed Pentagon Papers leaker Daniel Ellsburg are rallying in Manning’s defense, believing this case to be crucial for the future of press freedom in the US.
“An investigation into WikiLeaks for publishing is a grave threat to all journalists’ rights, and Chelsea is doing us all a service for fighting it. She has already been tortured, spent years in jail, and has suffered more than enough. She should be released immediately,” Ellsburg said in a public statement.
Regardless of what one may think of Manning’s lifestyle choices or far-left progressive politics, she must be commended for making this costly stand on behalf of press freedom in the digital age. Because of WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange, the public understands like never before the levels of political and corporate corruption marring society as a whole. President Trump must shield them and other whistle-blowers from prosecution if he really wants to crush the deep state and fake news.
Free Speech
Does the Arizona Constitution Provide Means for Lawmakers to Crack Down on Big Tech Censorship?
Does the Arizona Constitution provide protections from Big Tech?
The Arizona Constitution provides stronger protections for freedom of speech than the First Amendment does, potentially providing legislative solutions to Big Tech censorship in the state at a moment where political censorship is more pervasive than ever.
Article 2 Section 6, Arizona Constitution states that “Every person may freely speak, write, and publish on all subjects, being responsible for the abuse of that right. “
This differs greatly from the federal constitution in that it doesn’t limit the powers of a legislature to restrict freedom of speech. The US Constitution identifies “Congress” as the body it’s restricting from making a law abridging the freedom of speech.
The speech rights established by the Arizona Constitution are thus expressed positively; recognizing a right belonging to the people, as opposed to negating an infringement of said right.
Quite obviously, the Arizona Constitution was written in an 1910, an era in which the internet would’ve been just as inconceivable as it was in 1789.
In a 2019 Arizona Supreme Court case, the state’s highest court recognized in a 4-3 judgement that the Arizona Constitution provided greater protections than the federal constitution. The case recognized that violations of the First Amendment would represent de facto violations of the
It’s not outside the realm of possibility that the Arizona Attorney General, or state legislature, could hold Big Tech oligarchs to account for violating the Article 2 Section 6 rights of Arizona citizens- especially in a context the major platforms are collectively adjudicated to be acting as a trust in order to suppress competition and silence lawful speech.
Three Arizona legislators called upon Attorney General Mark Brnovich to begin an antitrust investigation into Big Tech oligarchs following the coordinated deplatforming operation against Parler, in which both Amazon and Apple colluded to restrict the free speech platform from the internet.
In an era where the overwhelming majority of free speech is communicated online, the censorious actions of Big Tech very plausibly represent an assault of the right of free expression guaranteed in the Arizona Constitution. Both chambers of Arizona’s legislature remain Republican, even as the state has become purple, and action against Big Tech censorship on the state level could become a real possibility in the coming years.
Follow me on Gab @WildmanAZ, Twitter @Wildman_AZ, and on Parler @Moorhead.
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