Yesterday, the Virginian-Pilot reported that a Norfolk judge was issuing a court-order to have the web site may4thcounts.com taken down, but today reports that the judge has reversed his ruling.
Vivian Paige has been all over this story and reported the reversal first on her blog.
Eileen from VB Dems also has a very good post on the 1st amendment ramifications of the original decision.
For what it’s worth, in my capacity as president of Blogs United, I issued the following statement:
“Blogs United is very concerned whenever on-line, independent political speech is called into question, and is deeply troubled that GoDaddy.com broke its contract with their client at the first sign of potential trouble.
“Ethical and responsible information on-line has transformed politics and political accountability, so any threat to restrict that speech is a potential threat to our first amendment freedoms.
“In our view, speculation about unethical behavior by a politician is a very serious charge and must be thoroughly investigated, not summarily dismissed and brushed aside because a politician is uncomfortable.
“We are pleased Judge Charles Poston reversed his ruling and sided with freedom and accountability.”
A portion of that statement is included in today’s article.
In this case, political speech was protected, but city funds were wasted in the effort over a politician who felt poliically vulnerable. It’s a travesty that some political figures look at the public treasury as their personal bank account.
What’s equally pathetic is GoDaddy.com’s response to all this. Instead of conducting their own investigation into the matter, at the first sign of trouble, they not only drop the site, but violate the anonymity contract agreed upon by the client and the web host!
GoDaddy.com just lost a customer. I have several web sites registered through them – never again.
