Will the real Biondi bill please stand up?

When your allies start confusing the issue, you know you are in trouble . . .

Will the real Biondi bill please stand up?

Somebody posted on NJ.com’s Bridgewater board about Assemblyman Biondi’s internet “police state” bill (link to post)

819. Biondi: Close NJO?
by JuanDough, 3/2/06 13:33 ET
Since you post on a bulletin board you may want to read a bill that was sponsored by Peter Biondi, A1327 that would require all forums like this to require real names.
So after reading the Bill that the esteemed Assemblyman Peter Biondi has proposed , No. 1327, I cannot help but think is he the most out of touch person in New Jersey? Does he honestly believe that this bill will get him anything other than a thrashing in the media? Is it any wonder there are no co-sponsors?

It seems that Mr. Biondi is naïve enough to think that requiring “New Jersey” resident ISP’s to make people use their real names is going to stop criticism of government? One of the principals this nation was founded on?

Has this man even read the constitution recently? He is a politician and representative of the people so surely he has.

Has he read any of the recent court (including the Supreme Court) rulings that protect anonymous free speech? I don’t think he has.

Mr. Biondi, do yourself a favor and take a stroll over to the following link:

http://www.eff.org/legal/cases/

Pay particular attention to the McIntyre vs. Ohio elections commission. As you will see, your legislation is not only embarrassing to you, it’s also I believe unconstitutional.

I would suggest that you think long and hard about pursuing this losing cause. Here’s a particularly good case decided by guess who? The NJ SUPERIOR COURT OF NEW JERSEY, APPELLATE DIVISION.

http://www2.bc.edu/~herbeck/
cyberlaw.dendrite.html

So good luck with your Bill Mr. Biondi, it’s going to be fun watching the reactions of EVERY SINGLE Newspaper and Broadcaster in the country when they get wind of this! I’ll even do you the favor and send a copy to several in the area, just to see how they react.

Have a nice day….Juan Dough

This prompted death-threat developer-attorney Larry Powers, posting today as “hidzume”, to respond:

820. Actually, that’s not what it says.
by hidzume, 3/2/06 14:28 ET
You wouldn’t have to use your real name. You could continue to remain anonymous. See the actual language of the proposed statute, here:

http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/2006/
Bills/A3000/2623_I1.HTM

What is proposed is an easier way to find out who is trashing you than actually going through the time and expense of filing a lawsuit and then finding out via subpoena. Based upon current case law, it might be tough to enforce this law as it would seem to me that a Court (not one’s own subjective mind) should determine what is defamatory. I mean, anyone nut can say that you are defaming, threatening or stalking them. That doesn’t make it so.

PS: Juan – Funny handle (John Doe pun). Bet you are a lawyer.

It later turns out, someone discovered that Powers had cited the wrong BILL!! (Man, I wish I had caught that one.) Powers apparently linked to Wilfredo Caraballo’s bill here that would require disclosure of source ISP’s to anything posted on these internet boards. (That bill would make my life a hell of lot easier, for the number of things I’d still like to track down.)

It’s not Biondi’s bill —- Biondi’s is different: Biondi’s police state bill

Powers has done this kind of thing, time and again, over the last several years. False “facts”, and personal attacks — nowadays bordering on the criminal. I guess it helps him curry favor with the Republican officials running the Bridgewater government, that he represents developer clients before. They read his shit on the internet, get their giggles, and approve his client’s projects.

That sounds like Bridgewater Township Republicanism all right.

You’d think a lawyer would check the citation before he made the argument.

A good lawyer would.