Supreme Court Vindicates Hal Turner

(http://family-of-hal-turner.blogspot.com/) The United States Supreme Court today overturned a decision by the 7th US Circuit Court of Appeals concerning a ban on handguns in Chicago. It was a victory for gun-rights and vindication of radio host and Blogger, Hal Turner.

In June, 2009, the 7th US Circuit ignored the "supremacy clause" of the US Constitution, ignored the Second Amendment and ignored a 2008 landmark ruling by the Supreme Court which struck down bans on handguns as unconstitutional.

Instead of obeying the Constitution and the recently decided Supreme court case, the 7th US Circuit upheld Chicago's ban on handgun ownership. It was, quite simply, an arrogant act of disobedience by a defiant court.

700 miles away, radio host and blogger Hal Turner criticized the 7th US Circuit for their defiant ruling. Turner named three Judges on that court, called them "traitors" and "tyrants" for what they did. Turner went on to quote Thomas Jefferson who wrote "The tree of Liberty must be replenished from time to time with the blood of tyrants and patriots." Turner then wrote that the judges "deserve to be killed" for violating the constitution.

The following day, Turner looked-up the judges on Google's search engine. He found their public photos and added those photos to his original blog posting. Turner also went to the public web site of the 7th US Circuit and found the publicly listed courthouse addresses for each of those judges. He added those public courthouse addresses to his original posting. Later, Turner looked up a photo of the courthouse and a map of the neighborhood in downtown Chicago. He added the public courthouse photo and Google Map to his original post.

Twenty days later, the US Attorney's Office in Chicago ordered Turner to be arrested on a charge of "threatening to assault and murder three United States Judges." They claim that saying the Judges "deserve to be killed" is a threat to actually go kill them. Turner says the word "deserve" is an opinion which Americans are free to express.

Turner went on trial in December, 2009 and during that trial, Assistant US Attorney (AUSA) William Hogan told the jury that Turner had "twisted" views of what the US Constitution means. In fact, Hogan took great pains to label Turner's view as simply "wrong" about what the Constitution means. You can read a sample of Hogan's remarks from the official court transcript below. (Click the image to enlarge.)



Today, a year later, it turns out that Hal Turner was correct! The US Supreme Court sided with Turner's view of the US Constitution by overturning the 7th US Circuit's opinion in the Chicago handgun ban case. Hal Turner was right, AUSA William Hogan and the Judges on the 7th US Circuit were wrong.

Looks like the only people with a "twisted" view of the Constitution are the US Attorney's Office and the Judges in Chicago.

Guess what else? Hal Turner's view about his words being protected by the First Amendment is right, too. The government and Judge in Turner's ongoing case, are wrong. They're ignoring the First Amendment and 50 years of Supreme Court case law just like the 7th US Circuit ignored the Second Amendment and case law. Birds-of-a-feather flock together.

The real shame of the ongoing case of Hal Turner is that the Jury in Trial #1 was deadlocked; they voted 9 to 3 in favor of Acquittal. The deadlocked Jury caused a mistrial and Turner was put on Trial a second time in March, 2010.

At that second trial, the Jury was also deadlocked, causing a second mistrial. Amazingly, the US Attorney's Office announced they would put Turner on trial for a THIRD time! That trial is presently scheduled to begin August 9 at the US Courthouse, 225 Cadman Plaza East, Brooklyn, NY. It is open to the public.

Now that the US Supreme Court has adopted what was ostensibly Hal Turner's view of the Constitution, it ought to be funny for Turner's defense team to use that at Trial #3. It should be great fun when the 3 Judges from the 7th US Circuit come back to New York to testify once again only this time, the Defense gets to point out to the Jury that these arrogant Judges were, in fact, wrong, and Hal Turner was right.

AUSA Hogan wen t out of his way to say that Turner did not go to law school and was not a Constitutional Scholar. He's not a Swiss Watchmaker either; that doesn't mean he can't read and understand a clock.

Hal Turner is right; the government is wrong. Too bad neither the government nor the Judge in the case are educated enough to admit they're wrong.