When Angel Dillard was arrested for sending threatening letters to Dr. Mila Means, her original defense was that it wasn’t a “true threat.” She wasn’t really going to put a bomb under the doctor’s car, her lawyer argued, so it shouldn’t count.
But now Dillard is taking a new approach. She is counter-suing and now claims God was speaking to her.
Dillard responded with a lawsuit saying the government’s suit violates her freedom of speech and religion. Government lawyers have criticized her arguments and asked the court to dismiss her counterclaim. Her attorney asked the court Friday allow her to amend her lawsuit to address “any pleading defects” and support its allegations.
“Angel Dillard believed she was inspired by God to send a letter to Dr. Means in an attempt to convince her not to pursue her plan to abort babies in Wichita,” attorney Donald McKinney said. “Angel Dillard wrote the letter quickly, in a matter of minutes, and believed that her message was divinely inspired.”
It’s the next logical step in her argument that the letter was covered under free speech and freedom of religion, a defense that has already managed to make headway with state judges.
If all it takes to defend threats is to say God told you to do it, we’re likely to see clinic violence increase even more.
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
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