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By Senior Editor John H. Farr
It's a sad day for First Amendment rights in America. In Seattle, Paul Trummel, a 70-year-old man who has been imprisoned for 111 days, some of them in solitary confinement, had no choice but to take down a Web site satirizing officials of a retirement home or face even more time in jail. The details of this latest development may be found at SiliconValley.com . We also recommend the National Writers Union "Free Paul Trummel" Web site for background on this issue. Briefly, Paul Trummel committed the apparent crime of satire and being a "cantankerous old man." After a dispute with the management of his retirement home, Trummel put up a Web site that among other things accused the director of having a sexual dysfunction. You may or may not think this was deserved, but a Seattle judge actually ordered Trummel to remove the site at the request of the retirement home directors and threw him in jail when he refused to comply. [We have somewhat condensed the convoluted tale and urge everyone to visit the NWU site for clarification and links to other articles about the case.] Needless to say, there is no justification for jailing a man for making fun of someone else on a Web site. It may be bad manners but it is protected free speech. In this case, the judge is simply wrong. Speaking of her client's compliance with the court order, however unconstitutional it may be, attorney Elena Luisa Garella said: "I can hardly blame him. He had a choice between pulling it and being put in jail by a judge who doesn't understand some of the fundamental precepts of constitutional law. He's an elderly man who doesn't need to risk his life. He can't tolerate being in solitary confinement."
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