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Legal Schnauzer is being threatened with a sheriff's auction of his house, and he thinks it's a means to get him to shut down or change the tone of his blog. That sounds pretty bad, though convoluted. The approach taken with Kathleen Seidel of Neurodiversity Weblog (H/T to Lindy) was more direct. She was told to produce: “all documents pertaining to the setup, financing, running, research, maintaining the website http://www.neurodiversity.com“ – including but not limited to material mentioning the plaintiffs – and the names of all persons “helping, paying or facilitating in any fashion” my endeavors. The subpoena demands bank statements, cancelled checks, donation records, tax returns, Freedom of Information Act requests, LexisNexis® and PACER usage records. The subpoena demands copies of all of my communications concerning any issue which is included on my website, including communications with representatives of the federal government, the pharmaceutical industry, advocacy groups, non-governmental organizations, political action groups, profit or non-profit entities, journals, editorial boards, scientific boards, academic boards, medical licensing boards, any “religious groups (Muslim or otherwise), or individuals with religious affiliations,” and any other “concerned individuals.”
She believe this violates her first and fourth amendment rights (at least!) and has filed a motion to quash. I don't speak legalese, but I like this part: WHEREFORE, Kathleen Seidel prays her motion to quash this unconstitutional, unreasonable, irrelevant, excessive, invasive, burdensome, frivolous, and clearly retaliatory subpoena be ALLOWED.
From the comments on that post I learned a new term, SLAPP, or Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation. There's even an anti-SLAPP website. SLAPPs are meant to intimidate people who are exercising their right to free speech and public discussion. They cause a lot of anguish and take time to resolve. It sounds like some bloggers got SLAPPed. Good luck to Ms. Seidel and Godspeed to her motion to quash. Best wishes to Legal Schnauzer (and Mrs. Schnauzer) too, of course. Update: There is even more chilling news for political bloggers in the state of Texas, especially those blogging pseudonymously.
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