Man Arrested For Refusing to Tweet November 24, 2009
It’s rare that I feel confident saying that a particular criminal prosecution is clearly unconstitutional. This is one of those times.
Police arrested a senior vice president from Bieber’s label, Island Def Jam Records, James A. Roppo, 44, of Hoboken, N.J., saying he hindered their crowd-control efforts by not cooperating.
He was in custody Friday night, pending charges that could include criminal nuisance, endangering the welfare of a minor and obstructing government administration, Smith said.
“We asked for his help in getting the crowd to go away by sending out a Twitter message,” Smith said. “By not cooperating with us we feel he put lives in danger and the public at risk.”
There are prohibitions against compelled governmental speech, which is exactly what they were trying to do here. If the government cannot force you to display “Live Free or Die” on your license plate, they certainly cannot force you to tweet anything.
Related posts:
- Rod Blagojevich Banned From Tweeting At Trial Former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich has been forbidden from tweeting...
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Ray Beckerman, Technically Legal. Technically Legal said: No, police officers cannot force you to tweet anything, despite what they think: http://bit.ly/7p8eau [...]