IP: When I grow up I want to live in a world where the Secretary of State censures political speech on the Internet... -- Good Morning Silicon Valley Fri Nov 03 12:15:14 EST 2000

[Dave Farber <farber@cis.upenn.edu>]

>  The Southern California branch of the American Civil Liberties Union 
> will <http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-3365122.html>file for a 
> temporary restraining order against the state of California and 
> California Secretary of State Bill Jones for "threatening criminal 
> prosecution" against <http://www.voteswap2000.com/>voteswap2000.com -- a 
> site where people in hotly contested states agree to vote for Gore if 
> someone in a less contested state votes for Nader. The hope is that by 
> doing so Gore will gain a lead over Bush in the contested states, while 
> the Green Party gains the minimum 5 percent of votes necessary in other 
> states to qualify for campaign contribution matching funds in the 2004 
> presidential election. Jones' previously filed restraining order cast a 
> wet blanket over the initiative, one the ACLU claims undermines healthy 
> political discourse. "What the secretary of state is doing is censuring 
> political speech on the Internet," said Mark Rosenbaum, an attorney for 
> the Southern California branch of the ACLU. "It's the first time I'm 
> aware of that any elected official anywhere has attempted to censure 
> political speech on the Internet... I think the secretary of state is 
> clamping down on pure political speech," he said. "Whether it's because 
> he's a Republican and this is a (site designed to help) Democrats I don't 
> know, but he's chilling the nation's discourse."