Appeals Court Says Feds Can File Oversized Brief In Weev Case, But His Defense Has To Keep Its Reply Short

from the due-process! dept

The case against Andrew “weev” Auernheimer is already crazy enough. He’s been charged by the feds with a violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) for finding a huge security hole created by AT&T. Still, a court found him guilty. The appeal is ongoing, with the DOJ basically arguing that weev broke a rule that it made up. And, now, the third circuit appeals court is apparently stacking the deck against weev.

The government had made a request to file an “oversized” brief to present their case. In response, weev’s lawyers requested the ability to file an “oversized” brief in reply to the government’s brief. The DOJ did not oppose this request. Yet, the court approved the government’s request while denying the defense request. In short: the government can file a giant brief throwing the kitchen sink of legal theories at weev, while weev’s team is limited in how much space it has to reply. No matter what you think of weev, who seemed to take joy in pissing off just about everyone, at the very least you’d think he deserved the right to present a full response to the claims made against him by the government.

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Comments on “Appeals Court Says Feds Can File Oversized Brief In Weev Case, But His Defense Has To Keep Its Reply Short”

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23 Comments
Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re:

People that have been watched lots of cases from the outside, e.g. by following the SCO case on groklaw, or any of the prenda cases, know that judges will often give the side with the weakest case a bit of help to try to level the playing field. So this could be a good sign for weev. Of course, it could also be exactly what it appears to be. The appeals court could have already decided that the government says it’s bad, so it must be bad.

Anonymous Coward says:

What? Actually have a real case where justice is the predominate consideration in court? Our court system has become a mockery of the word justice. You get justice according to how much you can afford to pay for.

We are seeing this on multiple levels. At GITMO, those accused are not allowed to use memory of torture in their defense against any charges that may have come about from said torture. The military broke all legal precedence in spying on the client/lawyer in talks, without mentioning it at all to either party. Nor is it likely to be admissible evidence in that kangaroo court.

Make no mistake I am all for giving terrorists their just due but there is a huge question that the right terrorists and financial supporters are even in the states. One might start with looking at the wealthy and those in power in Saudi Arabia and releasing the redacted report sections on that from the 9/ll investigation that Bush decided were national security issues. Those congressmen who have read the report have stated they have come away both pissed and amazed that the politicians have allowed the government to go in the direction it has gone rather than after the real perps.

Internet Zen Master (profile) says:

Re: Re:

Which corporate sponsors is it keeping happy, exactly?

Because the exploits the NSA’s doing have kinda done a bit of damage to American’s tech corporations (Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, Apple, etc.) by destroying consumer trust in U.S. tech [which, last I checked, is one of the only industries America hasn’t completely outsourced yet].

So, who are they trying to appease again?

All that being said, following the ‘stacking the deck against them’ line of thought, it feels like we’re seeing the judge/dealer let the DOJ start out with a full house and deals weev’s defense a bad hand and they’re only allowed to bluff.

This stinks of bullshit to high heaven.

That Anonymous Coward (profile) says:

Re: Re: Re:

All of the military contractors.
We spend billions and billions with them on snake oil.
We hire their workers and give them access to their competitors, and have the honor system that none of the data that might benefit the future of the corporation won’t make its way to them.

And gee they hire all of those people who got them these laws and access, and we pay them more to support them indefinitely.

That One Guy (profile) says:

Well of course the rules are different

One side of the case get’s the high court treatment, so they can do whatever they want, while the other side has to deal with low court treatment, and therefor has to follow the rules(even the ones made up on the spot apparently) to the letter.

Honestly given how much a sham the whole thing has been and continues to be, I’m surprised the court let the defense file at all, it’s pretty obvious the outcome has already been decided, and the courts are just going through the motions to make it look good.

J. Dirt says:

weev tormented even CHILDREN...

weev deserves life with no parole for his trolling and extortion schemes alone. He didn’t even spare children life ruining levels of harassment. He once demanded $500 from me personally to remove highly defamatory and obscene content from ED. This content had my actual resume along with it, and also highly sensitive personal information. Weev is an extortionist and I would party for a month if/when some con shivs him in his liver on the Cellblock.

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