#Threadnought: Texas Bar Admission
Donation protected
Back in early June, you probably saw folks on #LawTwitter joking about a retraction letter sent by a Texas attorney on behalf of an anime voice actor. The letter included the gem "This statement is defamatory and false because [the voice actor] is not a piece of sh*t (that is another name for feces, thus it is impossible for him to be a 'piece of sh*t')."
There were other gems that you can read for yourself in this tweet.
Well on June 6th, I made the fateful decision to read the defamation lawsuit this Texas attorney had filed – and tweeted that he was going to lose.
Every. single. day. since then my Twitter mentions have been a perpetual raging dumpster of @'s from fans of the voice actor in question.
A group of about 50 attorneys in #LawTwitter have been patiently trying to explain how the law works to those who are interested, while we wade through the unending detritus of the weeb mob. Several of us have been doxxed for our efforts. A few even tried prank-calling my phone several times an hour, every hour, for days on end.
The ensuing Twitter thread has been dubbed The Threadnought™. It got so long we even needed a separate summary thread to help navigate it.
One of the recurring refrains from the folks polluting our collective @'s has been an insistence that basic American principles – things like the First Amendment and "truth is a defense to defamation" – somehow don't apply in Texas. And that none of us are Texas lawyers so what do we really know anyway? And so on.
Well... it turns out I meet the qualifications for admission to the Texas bar. So we did a poll on whether I should set up a GFM to apply.
Hence this campaign.
Applying to be a Texas lawyer costs about $1000: $890 to the Texas Board of Law Examiners, $25 to get a copy of my old MPRE score, $5 for a Certificate of Good Standing, and a few other items I haven't priced out yet. If we can raise the money to cover those costs, I will submit an application to become a Texas lawyer within a week of everything being funded.
And if I get admitted, I'll work with other lawyers down there on First Amendment defense using Texas's anti-SLAPP law (the Texas Citizens Participation Act) – including fighting against bumptious libelslander LOLsuits like the one that started The Threadnought!
Your support is kindly appreciated :) And, as always with these fundraisers, any excess funds will be distributed to an assortment of charitable causes (and helping to spoil my dog Chance and cat Biscuit)
There were other gems that you can read for yourself in this tweet.
Well on June 6th, I made the fateful decision to read the defamation lawsuit this Texas attorney had filed – and tweeted that he was going to lose.
Every. single. day. since then my Twitter mentions have been a perpetual raging dumpster of @'s from fans of the voice actor in question.
A group of about 50 attorneys in #LawTwitter have been patiently trying to explain how the law works to those who are interested, while we wade through the unending detritus of the weeb mob. Several of us have been doxxed for our efforts. A few even tried prank-calling my phone several times an hour, every hour, for days on end.
The ensuing Twitter thread has been dubbed The Threadnought™. It got so long we even needed a separate summary thread to help navigate it.
One of the recurring refrains from the folks polluting our collective @'s has been an insistence that basic American principles – things like the First Amendment and "truth is a defense to defamation" – somehow don't apply in Texas. And that none of us are Texas lawyers so what do we really know anyway? And so on.
Well... it turns out I meet the qualifications for admission to the Texas bar. So we did a poll on whether I should set up a GFM to apply.
Hence this campaign.
Applying to be a Texas lawyer costs about $1000: $890 to the Texas Board of Law Examiners, $25 to get a copy of my old MPRE score, $5 for a Certificate of Good Standing, and a few other items I haven't priced out yet. If we can raise the money to cover those costs, I will submit an application to become a Texas lawyer within a week of everything being funded.
And if I get admitted, I'll work with other lawyers down there on First Amendment defense using Texas's anti-SLAPP law (the Texas Citizens Participation Act) – including fighting against bumptious libelslander LOLsuits like the one that started The Threadnought!
Your support is kindly appreciated :) And, as always with these fundraisers, any excess funds will be distributed to an assortment of charitable causes (and helping to spoil my dog Chance and cat Biscuit)
Organizer
T Greg Doucette
Organizer
Durham, NC