In Wisconsin a teenage girl was threatened with arrest for disorderly conduct if she didn’t remove an Instagram post about her COVID-19 status.
The family with the assistance of the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty is aiding the family in a lawsuit against the Sheriff’s Department for violating First and 14th Amendment rights. The Sheriff responded:
Sam Hall, an attorney for the sheriff, said the teenager “caused distress and panic” among other parents by claiming she had contracted the coronavirus despite getting a negative test result.
“This case is nothing more than a 2020 version of screaming fire in a crowded theater,” he said, referring to speech that is not protected by the First Amendment.
— Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Doesn’t the media regularly cause “distress and panic”? (e.g. Corona virus is going to kill us all, climate change is going to kill us all) Why isn’t the sheriff threatening the media with arrest for disorderly conduct?