Rhode Island Governor Dumps Revenge Porn Bill In Favor Of Upholding First Amendment

from the saving-rights,-making-enemies dept

In an unexpected turn of events, Rhode Island's governor has chosen the First Amendment over the hot button issue of revenge porn. One of several bad bills recently introduced by legislators (the others being a dreadful CFAA clone and badly-written "cybercrime" bill) is dead, killed by a politician who actually realized the potential damage to free speech it might have caused.

In her veto message signed late Monday night, [Governor Gina] Raimondo said: "The bill is apparently intended to curb the dissemination of private sexual material over the internet, but its sweep is much broader. It could also cover works of art that depict the human body. And unlike virtually all other similar state statutes, H7537 does not include basic safeguards such as the requirement that 'intent to harass' be demonstrated for conduct to be criminal."

"The breadth and lack of clarity may have a chilling effect on free speech," she wrote. "The right course of action is to follow the example of other states, and craft a more carefully worded law that specifically addresses the problem of revenge porn, without implicating other types of constitutionally protected speech."

The bill, as many of them are, was introduced in a misguided attempt to solve a problem by bashing away at it with the largest legislative hammer. Almost everyone agrees revenge porn is terrible, but only a small minority of those seem interested in handling the issue with the finesse it demands. Instead of narrowly-crafted bills, we get broadly-worded bluster that threatens to swallow up protected speech along with the revenge porn the bills so poorly target.

This veto is unusual, because there's hardly anything more damaging to a political career than refusing to accept "do something" as an answer -- especially when opposing such a bill tends to get a person painted as sympathetic to repulsive humans who traffic in other people's misery.

But wanting to do something, and doing something that isn’t unconstitutional, are different things. Much as the main movers against revenge porn have shamelessly “lied and denied” about the constitutionality of criminalizing protected speech, and state legislatures have enacted laws following their model. Thus far, only one has been tested, in Arizona, and it failed miserably.

Governor Raimondo has the honor of the first veto, which is something to be quite proud of. No one gives a prize for respecting the Constitution anymore, particularly in the face of sad tears and stories of woe.

That's the problem with issues like these: the forward motion is usually propelled by emotion... and little else. All too often, legislators are somewhat aware of the constitutional issues, but somehow rationalize the damage away as being minimal compared to the evil being fought.

The answer to the revenge porn problem isn't simple. On the plus side, it's evident from multiple prosecutions of revenge porn site owners that existent laws are capable of handling the problem. In some cases, the approach is indirect, but it still achieves the same ends. People who profit from revenge porn tend to violate other laws, rather than limit their actions to this particular legal gray area.

But it's a bold move for a governor to step up and shut down a bad bill, rather than allow the courts to do her work for her. For that, Governor Raimondo should be applauded, especially as she's already being portrayed as sympathetic to revenge porn site operators, rather than to everyone else whose free speech would have been negatively affected by the legislation.

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Filed Under: due process, first amendment, gina raimondo, revenge porn, rhode island


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  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 30 Jun 2016 @ 2:15pm

    "
    "The breadth and lack of clarity may have a chilling effect on free speech"

    Whoops! This speech was written for her by.... wink wink

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    That One Guy (profile), 30 Jun 2016 @ 3:16pm

    Kudos indeed

    A politician willing to defend the sleaze if that's what it takes to defend the innocent, a rare sight these days and something that's most certainly due some respect.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 30 Jun 2016 @ 4:37pm

    Wow! Mrs. Raimondo sounds like a woman I DO want for president. (unlike a certain one that helped write the TPP)

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 30 Jun 2016 @ 5:42pm

    Why do they think they need a new law in order to enforce the existing laws that prohibit blackmail, bribery and fraud ... simply because it is "On The Internet"?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      Whatever (profile), 1 Jul 2016 @ 5:07am

      Re:

      Why?

      Let's see. Section 230. A "service provider" that profits from the stolen images and videos can claim to be an innocent host, and claim immunity for any legal action. So before you can get anything done, you have to overcome Wyden's legal speed bump.

      If you happen to get past that one (the recent rulings in California might help you) you are then in the position of trying to figure out who actually making the posting. So then you have a whole other court battle just to get the "service provider" to release the information, so that you can go to the ISP to get them to release the info, only to run headlong into the concept that "an IP isn't a person, and the subscriber isn't liable for what their connection is used for".

      So trying to enforce the existing laws under the existing structures is very hard, and trying to get TIMELY resolution is almost impossible.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Whoever, 30 Jun 2016 @ 6:24pm

    "misguided"?

    The bill, as many of them are, was introduced in a misguided attempt to solve a problem by bashing away at it with the largest legislative hammer.

    Why do you assume that it was misguided? Perhaps the *real* intent was suppression of free speech.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 12 Jul 2016 @ 11:37pm

      Re: "misguided"?

      Who's freedom of expression? I have seen victims of RP literally fleeing from social sites like it's a war zone. For the rest of their lives they are silenced. Many even change their name and look just to take control of their lives back. Inability to see a crime at its face value is a huge mental block of our times.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    That Anonymous Coward (profile), 1 Jul 2016 @ 3:48am

    I do hope that the Governor is ready to point out to the first lawmaker to claim she hates the children or something, that wasting efforts with blatantly unconstitutional laws to score points in the media is someone who shouldn't represent people. That soundbite legislation might make people feel better, but almost never leads to actually making things better and often hurt them more as they waste money on legal fights that never should have happened.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Mat (profile), 1 Jul 2016 @ 10:15am

    Can we get a round of applause?

    Or some other way of showing that yes, we do appreciate someone who watches out for the side effects of the broad legislation meant to 'do something'?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    dubiyaman, 4 Jul 2016 @ 12:57am

    subtext

    "The breadth and lack of clarity may have a chilling effect on free porn," she wrote.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    porfavor, 13 Jul 2016 @ 12:27pm

    Isn't CDA too broad as well? I am using the same logic here.

    link to this | view in chronology ]


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