Tom Corbett -- The Hypocrisy of Some Who Sue to Keep the Government Out of Our Private Lives

by Paul Alan Levy

Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett, who is running for governor, in part, based on his having sued to block the new health care bill on the theory that it puts the federal government too much into citizens' private lives, apparently doesn't have any problem abusing his access to grand jury subpoenas to put pressure on his anonymous critics.  Techcrunch reports that Corbett has summoned Twitter to appear before a state grand jury to identify two anonymous bloggers, CasablancaPA and bfBarbie, who have been criticizing Corbett on Twitter.

Over the years, we have defended consumer critics of companies and politicians against civil suits to identify their critics, concerned that, if it is too easy to identify critics, there will be a chilling effect on public discourse and, consequently, a loss to the marketplace of ideas.  A couple of years ago, we defended against a grand jury subpoena from the Bronx DA to force Room Eight, a popular blog on New York politics, to identify a critic who was going after his Republican allies.   The DA had an attack of good judgment and pulled the plug before we could set a good precedent extending the Dendrite standard to the grand jury context.  Will Corbett be brought to his senses too, or will he press on to the end? 

UPDATE:

We have teamed up with the ACLU of Pennsylvania to oppose this subpoena.  Happily, Twitter is standing firm against Corbett's having threatened it with contempt for withholding production of the identifying information until we can secure judicial review of the First Amendment issues.

Comments

[Tim]

Tom Corbett He's clearly unfit to occupy the office of Attorney General and using his position as the highest law enforcement office in the state of PA to pursue a SLAPP suit is more than just reason to demand his resignation. This is repulsive and must stop.

[spam name]

Tom Corbett using his position as the highest law enforcement office in the state of PA to pursue a SLAPP suit is reason to demand his resignation.

He's clearly unfit to occupy the office of Attorney General.

[Parkinson]

Unfit clearly isn't the half of it. His much touted "bonusgate" indictments have been the result of a shotgun prosecution clearly intended to keep the scandal (and his "hands-on" interest) before the public eye through the 2010 campaign season. To this end he has dragged good honest people into his net with the sole intent of destroying their reputations while . keeping his name in the headlines. This is not an acceptable gubernatorial candidate. His goal since being elected attorney-general has been the governor's chair. His campaign ads have been filled with half-truths at best and outright lies at the worst. Tom Corbett is the best example of why Pennsylvania should have an appointed attorney-general instead of providing just another elected political pulpit for individuals who put their desires ahead of the needs of the people of Pennsylvania.

[Shannon]

Ridiculous.

Tom Corbett filing a frivolous SLAPP suit as a private citizen would be reason enough not to vote for him.

Tom Corbett using his position as the highest law enforcement office in the state of PA to pursue a SLAPP suit is reason to demand his resignation.

He's clearly unfit to occupy the office of Attorney General.