Slippery slopes - the 1st Amendment

Josh Wolf now sits in jail, and I think he's trying to defend the 1st amendment. I gave $20 to help his defense, I hope it helps.

Ryanne Hodson gives a good summary of my view:

Why should any of us care?
For us, it’s important to support journalists or anyone with a camera being harassed by the government to turn over recordings of public events that each of us has every right to record. We don’t want the government, local or federal, to make it a habit of asking for anything we happen to record. Then we each might question: “Do I want to

record this and be harassed later on?” This is especially true during controversial political events.


In the comments to Scoble's post which is where I first read about it, the comments seem to be running toward the blogospheric default... quick reaction without digging in for details. The critical matter in this case isn't the tape, it's the federal attempt to override the states rights. The people of California have made a law to protect journalists from fishing expeditions, a shield law. The federal government is using a very flimsy argument about tax money to try to bypass the States right to self-govern.