Like a condom, 1st Amendment can't always protect you ~ By Ann Coulter

I hope I won't get sued by Ann Coulter for excerpting several parts of her column. After all, she is an attorney. (Oh, wait, maybe I could claim that I am a journalist...) But anyway, Ann's column has so much good information in it, sharing it with you will hopefully provide some understanding as to what can be done about Julian Assange, (that is, if Eric Holder ever gets off his hind end), and why the 1st Amendment really is a non-issue in this case. Ann will explain why that is, and why being a "journalist" doesn't give a person immunity from the laws of the land.

Like a condom, 1st Amendment can't always protect you

ANN COULTER

By Ann Coulter

December 15, 2010 ~ 6:21 pm Eastern

© 2010

First of all, I feel so much more confident that the TSA's nude photos of airline passengers will never be released now that I know the government couldn't even prevent half a million classified national security documents from being posted on WikiLeaks.

President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder will be getting around to WikiLeaks' proprietor, Julian Assange, just as soon as they figure out which law the New Black Panthers might have violated by standing outside a polling place with billy clubs.

These legal eagles are either giving the press a lot of disinformation about the WikiLeaks investigation or they are a couple Elmer Fudds who can't find their own butts without a map.

Since Holder apparently wasn't watching Fox News a few weeks ago, I'll repeat myself and save the taxpayers the cost of Holder's legal assistants having to pore through the federal criminal statutes starting with the A's.

Among the criminal laws apparently broken by Assange is 18 U.S.C. 793(e), which provides:

"Whoever having unauthorized possession of, access to, or control over any document, writing, code book, signal book, sketch, photograph, (etc. etc.) relating to the national defense, ... (which) the possessor has reason to believe could be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of any foreign nation, willfully communicates (etc. etc) the same to any person not entitled to receive it, or willfully retains the same (etc) ...

"Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both."

As is evident, merely being in unauthorized possession of classified national security documents that could be used to harm this country and publishing those documents constitutes a felony.

There's no exception for albinos with webpages – or "journalists." Journalists are people, too!

And now, skipping down to the end of the column:

If Assange had unauthorized possession of any national defense document that he had reason to believe could be used to injure the United States, and he willfully communicated that to any person not entitled to receive it, Assange committed a felony, and it wouldn't matter if he were Lois Lane, my favorite reporter.

As I have noted previously, the only part of the criminal law that doesn't apply to reporters is the death penalty, at least since 2002, when the Supreme Court decided in Atkins v. Virginia that it's "cruel and unusual punishment" to execute the retarded.

Also, journalists can slander people at will. That ought to make them happy.

READ FULL STORY at WorldNetDaily.com

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