Representative John Reilly (R – District 46) and other Legislators will introduce legislation to protect innocent Michiganders, who make First Amendment protected speech, from false and malicious accusations and charges of making terrorist threats. In Michigan such charges carry penalties of up to a 20-year felony.
The legislation will be announced at a press conference on June 30 beginning at 5 p.m. on the stairs at the Michigan Hall of Justice (located in the Capitol Complex between Ottawa and Allegan at 925 W. Ottawa Street).
Reilly’s legislation is intended to help victims of false accusations, where the matter of Lucas Gerhard may be the most egregious. Gerhard has been the target of such abuse for nearly two years.
In August 2019, Gerhard posted a photo of his new, legally-owned rifle in a private online group of his college classmates, joking that the photo “ought to make snowflakes melt, eh?” A student who was not a member of the private online group reported Gerhard to the police and claimed to have felt threatened.
Solely on that basis Gerhard has been held in custody. First held for 83 days in jail and then under house arrest ever since. Gerhard has pending felony charges for making a terrorist threat. Incredibly, neither the local prosecutor, the judge, nor the Michigan Court of Appeals has recognized that Gerhard made an innocent joke that threatened nobody.
Instead, these members of the judiciary have invented a new legal doctrine contrary to Michigan law, claiming that any listener can claim to be threatened by anybody’s speech.
“By judicial decree the Constitutional rights of all Michiganders are in serious danger,” said Rosanne Ponkowski, President of the Michigan Conservative Coalition. “Prosecutors can declare ‘open season’ on anybody whose speech they disagree with. This is unconstitutional, immoral, and extremely dangerous in today’s toxic political environment.
Existing Michigan law prohibits prosecutors from bringing charges against people whose speech is “presumptively” protected by the First Amendment. However, what is considered “presumptive” is undefined and subject to abuse, as has happened in Gerhard’s matter.
“There was a time when our courts and political leaders would vigorously defend the right of free speech, including speech they disagree with,” said Ponkowski. “It is time to stand up for the rights of every Michigander to speak.”
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