The TKPOTD for six years ago today pointed out that the state statute he was basing LOLsuit VIII upon had been ruled unconstitutional by the federal court in which he had filed the suit. His response led to this Legal LULZ Du Jour later that day.

* * * * *

This is beginning to resemble a beached fish thrashing about on the sand. The Cabin Boy™ has finally done some research on the status of the South Carolina criminal defamation statute, and he’s now got things even more wrong than before. He looked to see how many cases are going forward in the U. S. District Court for the District of South Carolina that allege slander or libel. He found 184 and assumed that they all cite the criminal defamation statue as a basis.It’s clear that he didn’t actually check any of those case. I did. Well, I checked the first two, and neither of them mentions the criminal defamation statute at all, let alone cites it as a basis for a cause of action.

The Cabin Boy™ did discover that the law was amended in 2003, …… but he must not have read the old and new versions of the law and compared them with the Fitts v. Kolb decision by the U. S. District Court. If had done so, he would have seen that the portion of the law that caused the old version to be struck down by the federal court is still in the current version. The law may still be on the books as far as the state is concerned, but the federal court won’t enforce it. In fact, it will act to prevent enforcement. BTW, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals has favorably cited the Fitts ruling as good law in one of its opinions.

I look forward to watching the Cabin Boy™ explaining the finer points of the First and Fourteenth Amendments to a U. S. District Judge or, maybe, a panel of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Everything is proceeding as I have foreseen.

* * * * *

This comment appeared in the original post.

Yep.