In Morning Docket earlier today, we mentioned the New York judge who denied an Occupy Wall Street protester’s requests to invalidate the subpoena of his Twitter account. Sorry bro. It probably won’t make him feel any better, but the judge’s ruling in the case might go straight to the hall of instant judicial social media classics. (It’s only a matter of time before ESPN starts showing late-night replays for posterity.)
Apparently Judge Matthew Sciarrino is savvy to the hip Twitter set. One section of the ruling is filled with some awesome hashtag usage, and an informative social media footnote for those who haven’t gotten on the bus yet….
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Bloomberg has the backstory:
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. may subpoena Twitter Inc. for information about the account of an Occupy Wall Street protester, a judge ruled.
Judge Matthew Sciarrino of New York Criminal Court on April 20 permitted Vance to subpoena Twitter, denying a request by the protester’s lawyer to invalidate the subpoena. Vance wants information about the “@destructuremal” account of Malcolm Harris, who was arrested Oct. 1 with about 700 protesters on the Brooklyn Bridge, according to a court filing.
“Twitter’s license to use the defendant’s Tweets means that the Tweets the defendant posted were not his,” the judge wrote in a 12-page ruling.
Prosecutors said in a court filing that the Tweets are needed because Harris has advanced a defense to disorderly conduct charges that contradicts his public statements.
Okay, so far, so good. Privacy advocates, as expected, aren’t happy about the decision. But this is the real good part, courtesy of the folks over at BuzzFeed, who got their hands on the ruling:
The footnote is also quite entertaining:
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The # symbol, called a hashtag, is used to mark keywords or topics in a tweet. For example, if you search #OWS on Twitter you’ll get a list of tweets that mention #OWS.
It just goes to show that judges can be tech savvy without making controversial e-discovery rulings. And they can be way more hilarious!
Twitter-Loving Judge’s OWS Ruling Is Full Of #LOLZ [BuzzFeed]
Twitter Subpoena of N.Y. Protester Is Approved by Judge [Bloomberg]