On Fri, 30 Sep 2005, Michael Froomkin - U.Miami School of Law wrote:
</legal lurk>
No first amendment issues are implicated here. The first amendment only
protects US persons (citizens & residents) against actions by the US
government. Both sides of that equation are absent here.
This is private action against a private party. It may implicate the
moral principles of freedom of expression but these are not ordinarily
actionable either in the US or elsewhere. YMMV of course.
I think that the legal issues involve defamation and disparagement, and perhaps
others (e.g. corporate bylaw violations---otherwise known as "failure to follow
ones own written rules"), and other duties and obligations required of
corporations. Last I checked, the IETF is an activity of the ISOC, which is
incorporated in the US. The IETF has a nearly 2 million dollar budget, and its
bank account isn't in the name of an individual, it is in the name of a US
corporation.
But I think that Jefsey should formally counter-complain that the PR-action is a
personal attack based on personal dislike. I think the next step is to appeal
the IESG action to the IAB, and if that fails, then to the ISOC. It may also be
time to make a formal complaint to the ISOC about the pattern of misbehavior by
the IETF leadership in several related areas including abuse of Dean Anderson,
Dan Bernstein, Nick Staff, Jefsey Morfin, and others.
Please note that this comment expresses no opinion on the merits of the ban.
<legal lurk>
On Fri, 30 Sep 2005 Julien(_dot_)Maisonneuve(_at_)alcatel(_dot_)com wrote:
[much edited]
Note that the whole issue of list ban is treading on first amendment
grounds
in a way that could end up in court.
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