Top all-time · #84
Ken White
Personal blog · popehat.compoliticswriting
Ken White writes The Popehat Report, a personal blog at popehat.com about politics and writing. Since 2011, 396 different Hacker News readers have linked it 726 times, most often “Three Generations of a Hackneyed Apologia for Censorship Are Enough”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-06-25, and you can follow it by feed.
Rarely recommended · 5 of 40 sampled comments recommend it?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Ken White's Popehat, a US First Amendment and criminal-law blog by a former federal prosecutor, for explainers that debunk legal claims such as "shouting fire in a theater", RICO and federal sentencing figures.
- Recommended for · 5 comments
- Commenters call the Popehat post on crimes and whale-sushi sentences "quite good" and "excellent", say the Popehat explainers are good debunking pieces, and rec
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 40 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
A Complaint About Law, Liberty, and Leisure.
Most-linked posts?
- Three Generations of a Hackneyed Apologia for Censorship Are Enough42 people · 59 mentions · first linked 2017-04-07
- Confusion About Federal Sentences23 people · 45 mentions · first linked 2015-01-08
- /2016/06/14/lawsplainer-its-not-rico-dammit/21 people · 22 mentions · first linked 2017-01-21
- /2015/05/19/how-to-spot-and-critique-censorship-tropes-in-the-medias-coverage-of-free-speech-controversies/18 people · 21 mentions · first linked 2017-04-03
- Reminder: Oh, Won't You Please Shut Up? (2011)8 people · 8 mentions · first linked 2015-03-19
- /tag/prenda-law/7 people · 7 mentions · first linked 2017-03-07
- The Seductive Appeal of the “Nazi Exception”6 people · 9 mentions · first linked 2017-04-18
- Spot and Critique Censorship Tropes in Media Coverage of Free Speech Controversies6 people · 7 mentions · first linked 2015-05-20
- /2015/10/08/bad-reporting-on-matthew-keys-possible-sentence-conceals-prosecutorial-power/6 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2015-10-08
- In Which My Identity Is Sought by Federal Grand Jury Subpoena6 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2017-10-24
What Hacker News says?
It's Never Racketeering https://www.popehat.com/2016/06/14/lawsplainer-its-not-rico-...
Comment linking /2016/06/14/lawsplainer-its-not-rico-dammit/
on “Every Google result now looks like an ad”Submitted NSA Codebreaking: I Am The Other as a story · 450 points
HN discussionOk, here it is from Ken White: https://www.popehat.com/2019/08/29/make-no-law-deplatformed/
Comment linking /2019/08/29/make-no-law-deplatformed/
on “Oppose the Earn IT Act”Submitted Cops: We Need Rights More Than You, Citizen as a story · 411 points
HN discussionPopehat has an excellent article about this sort of thing. It’s really quite good. https://www.popehat.com/2013/02/05/crime-whale-sushi-sentenc... The tldr is that the maximum sentence of all the crimes added up has very little to do with what most people would actually face.
Comment linking /2013/02/05/crime-whale-sushi-sentence-eleventy-million-years/
on “John McAfee found dead in Spanish jail after court approves extradition to US”Submitted DoJ's Gag Order on Reason Has Been Lifted as a story · 383 points
HN discussionYelling Fire is "Holmes' famous quote comes in the context of a series of early 1919 Supreme Court decisions in which he endorsed government censorship of wartime dissent — dissent that is now clearly protected by subsequent First Amendment authority." [1] Holmes would later reverse his own ruling yet this quote will never die even though it has no bearing on actual law today and in realty "yelling Fire" would likel…
Comment linking /2012/09/19/three-generations-of-a-hackneyed-apologia-for-censorship-are-enough/
on “Permanent suspension of @realDonaldTrump”Submitted Judge Wright issues Prenda Law order as a story · 350 points
HN discussionFor one thing, because he's the author of this pretty famous post: https://www.popehat.com/2013/02/05/crime-whale-sushi-sentenc... For another, because the guidelines are pretty specific in this case --- that 2B1.1 crimes are charged according to --- well, here's the wording from the guidelines: "the applicable base offense level is determined by the count of conviction that provides the highest statutory maximum te…
Comment linking /2013/02/05/crime-whale-sushi-sentence-eleventy-million-years/
on “Elizabeth Holmes found guilty”Submitted DEA Orchestrates Disinformation Campaign to Conceal Surveillance Powers as a story · 347 points
HN discussionThat's the maximum possible the judge could decide to give. It bears little relationship to what the federal sentencing guidelines will actually suggest or the judge will deliver. https://www.popehat.com/2013/02/05/crime-whale-sushi-sentenc...
Comment linking /2013/02/05/crime-whale-sushi-sentence-eleventy-million-years/
on “Elizabeth Holmes found guilty”Submitted The Fourth of July as a story · 329 points
HN discussionI happened to read this article about recusal recently and I don't understand how some of these allegations wouldn't be explicit grounds for recusal, specifically the son being a lawyer with a firm that tries cases in the father's court. https://popehat.com/2016/06/06/lawsplainer-when-must-federal... Article is in the context of Trump, but you needn't let that turn you off.
Comment linking /2016/06/06/lawsplainer-when-must-federal-judges-recuse-themselves-anyway/
on “Being sued, in East Texas, for using the Google Play Store [video]”Submitted Reminder: Oh, Won't You Please Shut Up? (2011) as a story · 263 points
HN discussion> "The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic." Not only is it misused, the doctrine Holmes established was walked back (by Holmes himself!) and hasn't been the standard since 1969. https://www.popehat.com/2012/09/19/three-generations-of-a-ha...
Comment linking /2012/09/19/three-generations-of-a-hackneyed-apologia-for-censorship-are-enough/
on “YouTube is banning anti-vaccine activists and blocking all anti-vaccine content”Submitted How Secure Channels Attempted to Intimidate a Critic and Failed Spectacularly as a story · 253 points
HN discussionWell... > Nearly 100 years ago Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., voting to uphold the Espionage Act conviction of a man who wrote and circulated anti-draft pamphlets during World War I, said"[t]he most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic." > That flourish — now usually shortened to "shout fire in a crowded theater" — is the media's g…
Comment linking /2015/05/19/how-to-spot-and-critique-censorship-tropes-in-the-medias-coverage-of-free-speech-controversies/
on “YouTube is banning anti-vaccine activists and blocking all anti-vaccine content”Submitted Prenda Saga Update: John Steele Pleads Guilty, Admits Entire Scheme as a story · 239 points
HN discussionYou state: > you shouldn't be able to walk around with a rocket launcher or semi-automatic weapon Generally speaking, this statement speaks to a lack of information regarding what semi-automatic is or what it means. Most firearms sold today are semi-automatic. Banning semi-automatic firearms bans the majority of firearms. That you later go on to state "You don't need automatic weapons to defend..." implies to me tha…
Comment linking /2012/09/19/three-generations-of-a-hackneyed-apologia-for-censorship-are-enough/
on “Google Workers Urge C.E.O. To Pull Out of Pentagon A.I. Project”Submitted UC Davis Wondered If $175,000 Would Make the Internet Go Away. Conclusion: No as a story · 198 points
HN discussionStop quoting that case. That was SCOTUS upholding the right of the government to clamp down on speech that encouraged draft dodging or could even be marginally interpreted as disagreeing with it during wartime. https://www.popehat.com/2012/09/19/three-generations-of-a-ha... It ain't Dred Scott dumb, but it's up there in stupidity and retarded law. Well regulated doesn't mean the feds get to control the details of wh…
Comment linking /2012/09/19/three-generations-of-a-hackneyed-apologia-for-censorship-are-enough/
on “Google Workers Urge C.E.O. To Pull Out of Pentagon A.I. Project”Submitted Burn the Fucking System to the Ground as a story · 187 points
HN discussion> Islamist terrorists aren't killing people ostensibly engaged in criminal acts. True disturbingly often for police officers. About half the people shot and killed by police in the US (about 500 people per year) have mental illness. Compare that rate with the rest of the western world (less than 100 people since 2000) where people with mental illness tend not to be murdered by police. Even if we remove all the menta…
Comment linking /2013/12/05/nypd-baby-you-know-we-love-you-why-do-you-make-us-angry-like-that/
on “VLC contributor living in Aleppo writing about the Paris attacks”Submitted In Which My Identity Is Sought by Federal Grand Jury Subpoena as a story · 174 points
HN discussionFor the love of God, don't bring up that old turkey. https://www.popehat.com/2012/09/19/three-generations-of-a-ha... Fire in a theatre came up in the context of squashing a protestor against the draft, from a judge who thought eugenics may have something going for it. Just let it die. Please.
Comment linking /2012/09/19/three-generations-of-a-hackneyed-apologia-for-censorship-are-enough/
on “Notice of termination of Twitter merger agreement”Submitted Buyer sued for posting factual negative review on eBay as a story · 155 points
HN discussionI used to mostly read on my commute and it's been a few years, but the most approachable is probably https://abovethelaw.com/ . It has quite a bit of fluff and humor mixed in. Popehat is usually quite good, especially when there's some kind of nonsense narrative going around. Good debunking explainers https://www.popehat.com/ Volokh conspiracy has very good analysis of current events as well: https://reason.com/volo…
Comment linking /
on “Things you notice when you quit the news (2016)”Submitted Woman Facing $3,500 Fine For Posting Online Review as a story · 154 points
HN discussion> Make those fuckers pay > make sure the fucks who arrested you are fired Defense attorney and former prosecutor Ken White, of the law blog Popehat, says of a case of much more serious police abuse which resulted in a $1.6 million settlement: "you can assume that...taxpayers, not the law enforcement officers who engaged in a conspiracy to commit torture and rape, will foot the bill...The only thing out of it that wo…
Comment linking /2014/01/16/update-the-quantum-of-recovery-for-rape-and-torture-by-police-in-new-mexico-is-1-6-million/
on “How I Ended Up In Solitary After Calling 911 For Help”Submitted Prenda Law and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Appellate Argument as a story · 142 points
HN discussion
