Hate speech

[Steve]

x-no-archive: yes

==========================

(Jeri Clausing, NY Times)---In a new twist to the debate over free 
speech on the Internet, federal officials have invoked an unlikely 
statute in their quest to prosecute the alleged operator of a hate site: 
the Fair Housing Act.  

The lawsuit is one of just a handful filed in this country over hate 
speech on the Internet. And civil libertarians say it raises questions 
about just how malicious or personally threatening Internet material 
must be to override First Amendment protections on speech.  

The case was filed by the Department of Housing and Urban 
Development (HUD) in Philadelphia last week. It stems from 
accusations that a man named Ryan Wilson and a white 
supremacist group that he runs, ALPHA HQ, posted death threats on 
a Web site in 1998. The threats targeted Bonnie Jouhari, who 
worked at the Reading-Berks Human Relations Council in Reading, 
Pa., and was also chairwoman of the Hate Crimes Task Force for 
Berks County. Part of her job was to help people file discrimination 
complaints under the housing act.  

The charge filed by HUD against Wilson says he violated the law by 
threatening Jouhari in order to prevent her from enforcing the Fair 
Housing Act. Jouhari's job was to help housing discrimination 
victims file complaints under the act  

The secretary of HUD, Andrew Cuomo, announced the lawsuit on 
Monday, the federal holiday commemorating the birth of Martin 
Luther King. "Tragically, this case shows that the racism and the 
terrible discrimination that Dr. King fought so hard to abolish remain 
alive and well, and have even moved into cyberspace,'' he said.  

But whether or not such hateful speech is a violation of the Fair 
Housing Act or other laws is open to debate, said Chris Hansen, a 
lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union.  

"The interesting question to me is, even assuming it's a violation of 
the housing act, is it First Amendment protected speech," he said. 
"Pretty much everybody agrees that threats are not protected by the 
Constitution. On the other hand, hyperbole and colorful speech are 
protected."  

The federal housing act prohibits anyone from discriminating 
against people when renting or selling housing. It also prohibits 
anyone from threatening, coercing, intimidating or interfering with 
anyone "exercising a fair housing right or assisting others who 
exercise that right."  

HUD officials, in a statement on Monday, said they filed the case 
because they believed the Web site and comments that Wilson 
made in a television interview were clearly threats to the woman.  

But Hansen said that what constitutes a threat in real life and what 
constitutes a threat over the Internet are not always the same.  

"Saying 'I'm going to punch you in the nose' is something we think 
of as a threat when you are standing nose-to-nose with a person. 
But almost by definition, on the Net such a threat is less imminent," 
he said.  

According to HUD, the site, which is no longer on the Internet, 
featured a picture of Jouhari, who is white, and labeled her a "race 
traitor." It said: "Traitors like this should beware, for in our day, they 
will be hung from the neck from the nearest tree or lamp post."  

The site also called Jouhari's biracial daughter a "mongrel" and 
displayed an animated picture of Jouhari's office being blown up 
with explosives. Jouhari and her 16-year-old daughter fled the 
Reading area following the threats, HUD officials said.  

Hansen, who emphasized that he had never seen the site in 
question, said figuring out whether the comments were a genuine 
threat is no easy task. And there have been only a few other 
relevant cases involving Internet speech. Two of those involved 
threats made through e-mail, and two others involved Web sites.  

In a Michigan case, a boy who wrote and posted to the Internet a 
detailed story about wanting to kill a classmate was charged but 
later exonerated on a free-speech defense. In Oregon, people who 
provided information to a Web site that appeared to be a hit list of 
abortion doctors were successfully sued under a law protecting 
access to abortion clinics.  

Hansen said determining whether something was a threat involved 
three tests: Was it intended as a threat? Was it taken as a threat? 
And would a reasonable person take it as a threat?  

"The only one clear answer [in the Jouhari case] is that she took it 
as a threat, because according to HUD, she moved out of town," he 
said. "The other two questions are not as clear."  

Jordan Kessler, senior research analyst with the Anti-Defamation 
League, said the Web site was quite graphic and was clearly 
interpreted by local law enforcement as a threat against Jouhari. The 
more interesting question, he said, is why HUD is pursuing a case 
now, nearly a year after the Web site was taken down after local 
officials filed charges against its creator.  

"It is an interesting twist," he said. "I think that this woman was 
never really satisfied that adequate measures were taken."  

Indeed, after the Pennsylvania charges were filed, Ryan took the 
Web site down and never appeared in court. No further action was 
pursued.  

Jouhari, who has moved several times out of fear for the lives of 
herself and her daughter, is quoted in a recent interview on the Web 
site HateWatch.org as saying that she had pushed for action from 
the Justice Department. When it failed to act, she said, HUD stepped 
in.  

In the interview, Jouhari applauded HUD for filing the lawsuit, which 
could result in civil penalties of at least $22,000, plus monetary 
compensation to Jouhari, according to a HUD statement.  

"Cuomo is doing the best that he can with what the Justice 
Department is allowing him to do," Jouhari, who lives in an 
undisclosed location, is quoted as saying. "HUD was only allowed 
to begin pursuing this case in July or August. [The Justice 
Department] haven't even had the decency to formally decline to 
prosecute my case," she said.  

Jouhari said the lawsuit "restores some of my faith in the federal 
government."  

Copyright 2000 The New York Times Company





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