Hate speech cases are hard to win. So police, prosecutors use workarounds to jail white extremists Simone Weichselbaum and Joseph Neff
Why not everything you say or tweet is protected under free speech
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Douglas Story’s white supremacist street cred was easy to find. He had a white pride tattoo and a neo-Nazi license plate. In extremist online forums he made ominous, N-word-filled posts about President Barack Obama, implying that the president should be shot. The Aryan Nations even booted Story from its website when he sought help for converting his AK-47 rifle into a fully automatic machine gun – a federal crime.
Douglas Story’s white supremacist street cred was easy to find. He had a white pride tattoo and a neo-Nazi license plate. In extremist online forums he made ominous, N-word-filled posts about President Obama: “If someone puts a 30.06 round into the base of his skull, huh ya think? The Aryan Nations even booted Story from its website when he sought help for converting his AK-47 rifle into a fully automatic machine gun a federal crime.
This article was published in partnership with USA TODAY.
But none of that factored into his 2012 sentencing after the FBI arrested him in Virginia for possession of that modified gun. A federal judge blocked prosecutors from discussing Story’s white supremacist views, because the First Amendment protects speech, no matter how offensive. Prosecutors could only focus on Story’s illegal weapon.
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At Holly Matuszak’s home in Toledo, Ohio, the Pixar movie “Coco” is in heavy rotation.
It’s no surprise, given that Matuszak has a 6-year-old daughter and a 1-year-old son.
But the animated movie, which celebrates Mexican culture and history, holds special significance for the family: Matuszak’s daughter is mixed: Her father is Mexican and her mother’s background is white European. She loves the movie now, but that wasn’t always the case.
“When she was 3, she cried about seeing ‘Coco’ and not wanting to be Mexican,” Matuszak, a registered nurse case manager, told HuffPost.
Mohamed Sadek for TIME Twyla Joseph in Islip Terrace, N.Y., on Feb. 5, as her day begins
The first sign that Twyla Joseph’s college application process was not going to go as planned came on March 13, 2020, when, a day before her scheduled SAT, she learned the test had been canceled. The May and June tests were also canceled as coronavirus cases surged.
Joseph never got to take the admissions test. She barely knows her high school teachers now that she takes all her classes online at home in Islip Terrace, N.Y. She missed out on seasons of varsity cross-country and track, and lost contact with the coach who “used to give us really good life advice.” During the five months she was furloughed from her job at Panera Bread, she spent the money she’d been saving for college. And while she’s back at work now for about 28 hours per week, often dealing with customers who refuse to wear face masks, she is worried not only about whether she will be able to