A U.S. bankruptcy court trustee is planning to shut down Alex Jones' Infowars media platform and liquidate its assets to help pay the $1.5 billion in lawsuit judgments Jones owes for repeatedly calling the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting a hoax.
In an "emergency" motion filed Sunday in Houston, trustee Christopher Murray indicated publicly for the first time that he intends to "conduct an orderly wind-down" of the operations of Infowars' parent company and "liquidate its inventory." Murray, who was appointed by a federal judge to oversee the assets in Jones' personal bankruptcy case, did not give a timetable for the liquidation.
Jones has been saying on his web and radio shows that he expects Infowars to operate for a few more months before it is shut down because of the bankruptcy. But he has vowed to continue his bombastic broadcasts in some other fashion, possibly on social media. He also had talked about someone else buying the company and allowing him to continue his shows as an employee.
Here is as good of a place as any to say it: the decision against him is bullshit.
Yes, he advanced a crazy conspiracy theory and I can see how it is harmful to the victims family that some very strange people have called them up and harassed them. But the answer to that is to punish exclusively the relevant parties - I do not believe Jones revealed any personal information about them, nor did he ever encourage people to harass them, so what's the deal with him owing something like 1.5 billion?
Guy didn't kill anybody.
It was just free speech.
So your clear on this going forward; the first amendment protects a persons speech from repercussions from the government. That's it. Not from aggrieved parties. Not even from businesses deciding to sue. It means your city or state can't censor you - the rest of society ABSOLUTELY can tho.
Free speech doesn't mean you get to say whatever you want. Free speech means the government has to argue you back, if it decides, and not use the power of the state, and it's monopoly of the use of violence against you.
If you want to burn a cross, go ahead. But you're also free to experience the consequences within yr community - the government isn't going to protect your decision to be inflammatory. In both ways in this particular case.
What I want to know, is if money is free speech and the government cannot impinge on that right, then how the fuck can the government charge us for ANYTHING, be that fines or services. All should of been rendered moot with citizens united.
Where do you think the 1.5 billion dollar judgement came from? God?
Ok, the source of the judgement doesn't eclipse me, nor do I see how that could be derived but you got there somehow so...
I'm speculating on the whether citizens united rescinds the gmnts ability to demand money, writ large, as that would impinge our 1st amendment. Punitive judgements, between separate parties neither of which are the government such as with Jones v Sandy Hook parents, I would assume wouldnt be effected because the judge is basically performing arbitrage. The DOL, permitting, and taxes are wholly separate issues. Likewise the EPA bringing a corp to court over pollution, or the SEC against bad actors illegally manipulating pump and dump. Not that cases like that couldn't exist, but not with a government agency as an aggrieved party.
Ya follow? I don't think its a difficult thought experiment.