Prosecutorial Payback, Shrouded in Secrets

Halloween is over, but this is scary:

After a failed effort to stop a woman from talking about a case, an activist was served with a 'sprawling' federal subpoena.

"It had almost 100 subparts and sought documents, e-mails, phone records, checks, bank records, credit card receipts, photographs, videos and 'Facebook communications (including messages and wall posts)' concerning contacts with dozens of people, including doctors and lawyers, along with information about a billboard supporting the [a doctor and his wife being prosecuted] and a documentary film called, perhaps presciently, 'The Chilling Effect.'"

When the woman refused to comply with the court’s order, a federal judge imposed fines of $200 each a day."

Read The New York Times, A First Amendment Case, Shrouded in Secrets.

Government secrecy is antithetical to democracy. See OpenTheGovernment.org.