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Comment by ndriscoll | Hacker News Reader

I don't think there's even a claim the speech is illegal. Rather, it's that "transporting zines" when your spouse gets arrested on suspicion of crimes related to a designated terrorist organization is about as legal as "arts and crafts" (i.e. shredding documents) when your spouse is arrested for fraud. It's the obstruction of justice part that's illegal, not the possession. As far as I know she could be fully acquitted and he'd still be on the hook for trying to conceal evidence.

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It's worth noting that the average sentence for murder in the US is 15 years. And it is not actually a "designated terrorist organization". The government is claiming they are a "domestic terrorist organization" which isnt a thing under US law, additionally, there is no organization to speak of.

The important thing to note here, is because it's not a real organization, but treated like one, they can simply tie anyone against the admin to a "designated terrorist organization" and put them away for decades with little evidence. As they did here.

As opposed to real terrorist organizations where they can just phone up terrorist HR to confirm if someone is a member?

> the average sentence for murder in the US is 15 years

Perhaps in the state system: in the federal system this is absolutely not the case (it's 5+ years longer), and there is no parole.

> And it is not actually a "designated terrorist organization".

It is.[1] Perhaps you mean it's not a statutory Foreign Terrorist Organization, like Al-Qaida or Hamas. That is a harsher designation, but that's not possible for Antifa because it's not foreign.

[1]: https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/09/desi...

that's a plausible and convincing argument to me other than that its 30 years. Murderers can get less than that. I don't see how that's anything other than trying to chill the idea these people had based on the connection to speech.

I am also not a proponent of absolutist free speech if you check my comment history, but I cannot imagine a realm where the details linked in the small part of the article that's not walled off and the details in this thread don't align to the government trying to prevent bad thought.

I am open to more detail if anyone has some to provide

But were the zines evidence of a crime? I haven't been able to find any indication in the public records that they were.

If on Saturday my brother gets arrested and on Monday before school I stop by his house to pick up the textbooks I left there, I'm not obstructing an investigation.

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