Volokh Being Prosecuted for Anti-Government Speech

That's Maria Volokh, a municipal government candidate in Moscow (not the one in Idaho), being prosecuted for speech critical of the war in Ukraine (see Mediazona, in Russian). Volokh's and her codefendant Sergey Smirnov's speech apparently consisted of walking through the center of Moscow with black tape over their mouths and carrying posters with "*** *****," which seems to be a symbol for the expurgated eight-letter phrase "нет войне" ("no to war").

I would have been proud to call Ms. Volokh a kinswoman, but she and I are not, to my knowledge, related.

#Elections getting closer❗️
Maria Volokh and Sergei Smirnov, candidates for municipal deputies in the Tverskoi district of #Moscow, were charged with "discrediting" the #army and violating the rules for holding public events. https://t.co/m9IfG9sg7o pic.twitter.com/lCipPULf3J

— Russian Election Monitor (@russian_monitor) August 11, 2022

 

Comments

[DaivdBehar]

Again, lawyer dumbasses. Stop killing thousands of working people who only want to go home. Stop the breakage of a $trillion in glass.

Take out the cause of this distress.

[DaivdBehar]

Meanwhile, in the US, political opponents are subjected to the same lawfare as in Russia. Payback is overdue.

https://nypost.com/2022/08/11/armed-gunman-threatens-fbi-building-in-ohio-report/?lctg=607d90f2373dd11b6ec10b87

[DaivdBehar]

Welcome to Russia in PA.

https://patch.com/pennsylvania/balacynwyd/s/icza1/several-pa-gop-members-receive-fbi-subpoenas-reports

[DaivdBehar]

People are replying and liking my tweets. I still do not know how to read the tweets below a post. Also, I cannot stop saying, See you next Tuesday. One feminist blocked me. I am out of control in my saying that.

[DaivdBehar]

To Democrat and tech billionaire oligarch, Mike Bloomberg.

Mikey Boy. You want the energy for a 4000 lbs car to travel 100 miles at 65 mph to come from the household electric outlet? Is that correct? Sir, this is a Wendy's.

[DaivdBehar]

Employer speech suppressed by fear of lawsuit. 6 are dead.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/icu-nurse-who-killed-six-in-crash-worked-in-6-hospitals-over-2-years/ss-AA10u8oJ?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=bc02e9b8d2ef4c0cb9ebb774a2b91113

[Davedave]

A US domestic 240v outlet with a 100a plug/socket and appropriate wiring can handle 24kw. That's roughly 30 horsepower.

Car weight doesn't have any noticeable effect on steady speed cruising. Typical modern full-size cars - not SUVs - need about 25 horses to keep up a steady 65mph.

So even without filling up a battery* slower than you empty it - it's a reservoir - the calculation isn't problematic at all.

*You'd need quite a long charging cable though 🙂

[Noscitur a sociis]

Despite the manufactured hatred for Russia, I think there is a pretty good argument that they are more of a "law and order" government then the one found in DC.

<a href=https://reason.com/volokh/2022/08/10/thursday-open-thread-96/?comments=true#comment-9643209-Jimmy the Dane

[Noscitur a sociis]

Eh, copy and paste the URL, you know what I meant.

[DaivdBehar]

Everybody steals in Russia. It is a part of the culture. That is why all Russian immigrants must go to the street where Somin lives, not in my town.

[great Unknown]

So they are emulating the "land of the free and the home of the brave."

[Krayt]

The sordid and unseemly attempt last year to facetiously reiterate "The Marketplace of Ideas", to suggest some ideas were worthless, and therefore should be banned (the literal conclusion of one side of a debate on Radiolab) showed that even here, with an absolutist First Amendment, the tendency of the powerful to want to use the power of government to silence opposition is a neverending impulse, to be guarded eternally by those who love freedom.

The Founding Fathers, for all their flaws, were wise to institute this, even as, 240 years later, those who feel themselves their vast moral superiors, chip away at it with purpose new and ancient, the same purpose.

[Mr. Bumble]

"Volokh Being Prosecuted for Anti-Government Speech"

Hmm a possible explanation for no stories on VC about the Mar-A-Lago raid?

(Just kidding EV)

[Squirrelloid]

It doesn't have anything to do with immigration, libel, or access to court records. Why should Volokh care. (Or rather, why aren't you pestering Blackman?)

[Ed Grinberg]

It's 2024, after the presidential election, which Joe Biden "won" in a landslide. If I walk through Washington DC carrying a poster that says Biden won by fraud, what are the odds I'll be arrested and prosecuted for "spreading misinformation" (if not "insurrection")? I'd say at least 50/50.

[SRG]

Anticipatory grievance. "Oy, will I be so thoisty"

[Davedave]

Ah, the local Kremlin stooge is back to pretend he's talking about US politics and not trying to excuse Kremlin censorship at all, no sir.

[F.D. Wolf]

Who does Vladimir Putin think he is? Woodrow Wilson? This speech sure sounds like a "clear and present danger" to me. I think (early) Justice Holmes would approve of this prosecution, certainly under the logic of his opinions upholding convictions in Schenk, Debs, and Frohwerk, particularly the last, in which the journalist, among other things, had "declar[ed] it a monumental and inexcusable mistake to send our soldiers to France." Frohwerk v. United States, 294 U.S. 204, 207 (1919).

[SRG]

I would have been proud to call Ms. Volokh a kinswoman, but she and I are not, to my knowledge, related.

She's at worst your 32nd cousin, professor! (assuming that she's a MotT, which is likely. I am not sure of the etymology of "Volokh" specifically, but there are surnames like Bloch and Wallach which are cognate with Walloon, Wales, etc. all meaning, "foreign" - hence not an uncommon surname for Ashkenazi Jews, and I would be astonished if Volokh were only a false cognate.)

[legalizeshrooms]

It’s curious, the special charm that a namesake has that transcends relatedness.

[Eric VonSalzen]

If her name were Von Salzen I'd claim her as a cousin, evidence be damned!

[David Nieporent]

If you're not worried about evidence, then why not just claim her as such now?

[legalizeshrooms]

How do you know "Von Salzen" isn't beneath her?

[Ben of Houston]

Boo on the bait and switch headline, though I confess I would probably have done the same.

[Eugene Volokh]

You would have loved Sandra O'Connor to Retire (unfortunately the link in that post has long rotted away, but you can see the underlying story here).