When I blogged about the case, several commenters asked whether the ACLU would get involved. I’m pleased to say that the ACLU just filed a motion to file an amicus brief on our side:
ACLU seeks to participate in this case to urge this Court to reverse the lower court’s decision that Appellant’s conduct was criminal rather than protected expression under the First Amendment…. As described more fully in the Statement of Interest that will be submitted in the briefing should this motion be granted, the lower court’s decision in this action violates the constitutional guarantee of free speech and creates a new, unconstitutional standard to judge such cases.
Now we’ll just have to see what the Nebraska Supreme Court does. (Recall that at this point the decision before the court is only about whether to agree to further review the Nebraska Court of Appeals’ opinion, not about whether to reverse that opinion on the merits.)