The Right To Speak is a Civil Right. Of course it’s wrong to threaten people by speaking to them which is why Claire Risoldi is in the lock-up according to Jo Ciavaglia’s reports in the Courier Times. In addition to appearing in the Pre-Amble of the U.S. Constitution and in the First Amendment and in various judicial opinions the freedon to speak was supported in ancient Rome and Greece. But America put a violation of the Right to Speak in the civil law too with 42 USC §1983, “Every person who, under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, of any State or Territory or the District of Columbia, subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen of the United States or other person within the jurisdiction thereof to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws, shall be liable to the party injured in an action at law, suit in equity, or other proper proceeding for redress, except that in any action brought against a judicial officer for an act or omission taken in such officer’s judicial capacity, injunctive relief shall not be granted unless a declaratory decree was violated or declaratory relief was unavailable.” Sending Risoldi to jail for threatening a witness is not a violation of the Right To Free Speech but the facts of the threat aren’t available. Maybe they were so clear that the judge was forced to act but no such clarity can be invoked because the words aren’t available. Maybe they are in the transcript. Maybe not but the jail sentence is now a fact and we shall see what Risoldi’s expensive attorneys do in response. Meanwhile, there’s still no appeal of her sentence for the crimes of which she was found guilty. The appeal cannot come until after she is sentenced which has’t happened yet. That this is a case fraught with violations of the Constitution of Pennsylvania and of the United States seems as clear as the air. In addition there is the suicide of Tom French to deal with and the causes that drove the man to take his own life which may involve even more issues in this case which seem to have been started by a wayward Attorney General who herself is in jail. Justice is still a long way off.    

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