Blogger's Case Tests Limits of Free Speech

When three federal judges rejected an NRA lawsuit, Internet radio host Hal Turner got angry. “These judges deserve to be killed,” he wrote on his blog. “Their blood will replenish the tree of liberty.” Then he posted photos of the judges, maps to their courthouse, and info on the building’s “anti-truck bomb barriers.” Now he’s in jail awaiting trial, in a case that will test the limits of free speech, the Washington Post reports.

“He did not say go out and kill,” his lawyer argues. “This is political hyperbole, nothing more. He’s a shock jock.” But the FBI and US Attorney’s office think Turner crossed the line by posting the judges' information. Turner, intriguingly, is an FBI informant, who occasionally provided information on right-wing extremists. More often, however, he was an “agent provocateur,” recruited to provoke violent public reactions from leftists. (More FBI stories.)