Minnesota court strikes down coercion law on free speech grounds Tuesday, October 8, 2019
Courthouse News Service
Minnesota prosecutors charged a man under an unconstitutional statute after he threatened to send video of his ex-girlfriend talking about marijuana to her employer, a state appeals court ruled Monday.
The Minnesota Court of Appeals upheld the ruling of a trial court judge who found that the criminal law restricted free speech under the First Amendment.
The state had appealed the dismissal of its complaint against John Jorgenson. Prosecutors said he threatened to release a video of his ex-girlfriend to the Minnesota Department of Human Services. He made the alleged threat after the couple broke up in the fall of 2016, and she told him to leave her house.
Amid the dispute, Jorgenson called the woman’s father and told him that he wanted $25,000, according to court records,. In return, he said he would not send the video of her “talking about smoking marijuana” to the department where she worked.
Read more at: https://www.courthousenews.com/minnesota-court-strikes-down-coercion-law-on-free-speech-grounds/
Read the court's opinion at: https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/minn-coercion.pdf