Judge Cornelius Vaughey To Aaron Walker: There Is No First Amendment

By Susan Duclos

The audio and transcripts are finally out in the case of convicted terrorist, Brett Kimberlin, who managed to bamboozle an old judge, Cornelius Vaughey, who hasn't a clue what blogs are, or how the internet works to have a conservative blogger, Aaron Walker, arrested for.... blogging.

Information on Cornrlius Vaughey found here. The man was born in 1938, he retired in 2005 and should have taken up golf or something because it is obvious that technology has left him in the dust.

Patterico's Pontifications has done a great job of crowdsourcing to separate out the audio and transcribing some of the most egregious portions of the court proceedings.

The judge makes it very clear he hasn't a clue how social media works, what blogging does and he actually waves away a Supreme Court precedent as unimportant.

I will stick to the worst here and readers can click over to see the rest.

THE COURT: So what I’m going to do is I am going to pass this Peace Order, and it’s going to remain in effect, sir, for six months. So this is May 15, [inaudible] June, July, August, September, October, November– 

WALKER: –Your Honor, if I could say one thing here– 

THE COURT: –No, you can’t. Now, you — that’s what you’ve got *** the Appeals Court’s over there. 

WALKER: Okay, Your Honor. 

THE COURT: Okay. All right, sir, this Order shall remain in effect until 11-15 2012. During that period of time, you not — shall commit any act that causes in person (ph) fear and apprehension of bodily harm, any act that places the gentleman in fear and apprehension of grave bodily harm, any assault, rape, attempted rape, sex offense, false imprisonment, harassment, stalking, [inaudible] or malicious destruction of property. The Respondent shall not contact the person in person, by telephone, in writing orany other means, and any other means is putting it on a blog, a Tweet, a megaphone, a — smoke signals — what else is out there — sonar, radar, laser, nothing. 

WALKER: So I’m not allowed to speak about him for 6 months? How about the First Amendment? 

THE COURT: How many times have you been interrupting? And you shall not contact or harass him in any way. You shall not enter his residence, wherever he may be living. You shall remain away from his place of employment, wherever that may be, he may be employed.
Now, let me get to the — now, should this — should you violate this order, sir, you are subject to being prosecuted by the state’s attorney’s office as a criminal case, and if found guilty, the maximum penalty for the first violation is 90 days in jail and/or it’s a $500 fine, could be a $1,000 fine. Or worse than that, you could be in contempt of this court, where you could — I could do anything that I deem necessary to keep you away from — or e-mailing him or Twitting him or Googling him or Tooting him or smoking (ph) him, whatever phrase you use. I don’t know if [inaudible]. Thank you [inaudible]. 

KIMBERLIN: No, Judge, I want to thank you (ph)–. 

THE COURT: No, No, No, just don’t — don’t say anything to me. Don’t say anything to me. I’m just a — I’m just a civil servant doing my job.

And there went the right of free speech for Aaron Walker. Patterico's legal suggestions:

Now that it is clear that Aaron Walker was arrested for blogging about a public figure — and that a judge has imposed unconstitutional restraints on his speech rights — the next steps are clear:

• Aaron Walker needs an immediate court order modifying the current peace order. There must be a clear judicial order stating that Aaron is allowed him to blog, tweet, and otherwise express himself publicly about public figure Brett Kimberlin. Every second that he is muzzled from speaking out is an intolerable crushing of his most sacred American right of free speech.

• Aaron Walker needs legal help to obtain a reversal of this unconstitutional peace order, as well as to fight the possible criminal case against him for violating that peace order.

• Aaron Walker needs a permanent injunction preventing Brett Kimberlin from seeking peace orders against Aaron based on his public speech about Kimberlin.

To accomplish these goals, we need the spotlight of Big Media on this tremendous injustice. Please spread the word, far and wide.

Patterico is Patrick Frey and his day job is as a Deputy District Attorney, so the advice is sound.

Read the entire thing and pass it on folks and donate to help the Kimberlin victims.

Related:

Maryland Judge Helps Terrorist Perjuror Shred First Amendment To Destroy Honest Man