Posted on Thursday, July 10, 2025
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by Shane Harris
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8 Comments
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After nearly a decade of legal hell, Douglass Mackey finally received justice this week when the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals overturned his conviction for posting a meme on Twitter during the 2016 election. While the ruling is a major victory for free speech and common sense, Mackey’s ordeal is a reminder of the continuing threat of the left’s authoritarian and anti-First Amendment impulses.
Mackey’s story reads like something out of an Orwellian nightmare. Operating under the online alias “Ricky Vaughn,” he was part of the irreverent meme culture that exploded during the 2016 presidential election. His most infamous post was a tongue-in-cheek graphic designed to look like a Hillary Clinton campaign ad: “Avoid the Line—Vote from Home! Text ‘Hillary’ to 59925.”
It was obvious satire – no state permits voting by text – but the Biden Department of Justice treated it as criminal “election interference.”
Moreover, Because Mackey’s private chat included other meme makers, the DOJ piled on a Civil War-era “conspiracy against rights” count – a charge stemming from legislation written to stop the Ku Klux Klan from burning polling places, not to regulate edgy internet jokes. The statute carries a potential 10-year sentence.
Even more absurd was how the government chose where to prosecute him. Mackey lived and tweeted from Florida, yet prosecutors hauled him into the Eastern District of New York – Brooklyn – because Twitter posts can theoretically be “received” there. The venue was clearly cherry-picked so the case would be tried before a jury pool packed with liberal voters, all but guaranteeing a conviction. Mackey also landed before Judge Ann Donnelly, a Biden nominee.
Crucially, prosecutors never produced a single voter who lost their ballot because of the meme. Yes, the DOJ claimed roughly 4,900 people texted the number in Mackey’s post, but not one was identified as having missed the polls or been disenfranchised. The case was built on hypotheticals and hurt feelings, not real-world harm – a chilling precedent for any American who shares or has a good laugh at political memes.
But the most egregious aspect of Mackey’s case was the glaring double standard it exposed. On Election Day 2016, left-wing activist Kristina Wong donned a “Make America Great Again” hat and posted, “Hey Trump supporters! Skip poll lines at #Election2016 and TEXT in your vote! Text votes are legit. Or vote tomorrow on Super Wednesday!” It was the exact same “crime” as Mackey allegedly committed. But Wong was never even questioned, much less prosecuted.
Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel repeated the same gag in 2024, telling Trump supporters to vote “Thursday or Friday.” Again, no FBI raid, no courtroom drama.
The message was plain – if you mock Democrats, prepare for a fully weaponized justice system to come down on you with an iron fist; if you mock Republicans, enjoy your laugh.
Mackey ultimately received a sentence of seven months behind bars in October 2023. But this week’s unanimous 2nd Circuit decision finally blew up that farce. The panel – made up of judges nominated by both Republican and Democrat presidents – agreed that the government “failed to offer sufficient evidence” that Mackey ever agreed with anyone to commit a crime, let alone deprived anyone of the right to vote.
In short, the court affirmed what seems like common sense to the rest of us: posting a meme is not a felony.
That ruling is a massive win for free expression, but it cannot erase what Mackey lost. For nine years he lived under a legal sword. He spent untold dollars on attorneys, endured the stress of a politicized prosecution, and sat under a cloud of possible imprisonment – simply for trolling the wrong candidate. No court can refund that time or money.
Mackey’s case is a bright flashing warning about what a weaponized justice system can do to dissidents. While the Biden DOJ let violent criminals skate and turned a blind eye to left-wing riots, it poured resources into jailing a meme maker. If bureaucrats can twist 19th-century civil-rights law into a muzzle for internet jokes, imagine what they’ll do next time.
The threat isn’t isolated to America. Across the Atlantic, Britain’s new Online Safety Act criminalizes “harmful” digital speech, while Scotland’s “hate crime” law threatens anyone who utters words deemed “likely” to stir offense, and the entire E.U. is waging legal warfare against X for refusing to censor users.
Mackey’s case is a reminder that free speech survives only because citizens demand it, fight for it, and vote accordingly.
Americans should celebrate Douglass Mackey’s vindication – but stay vigilant. Remember how effortlessly the federal leviathan turned a bad joke into a federal felony. Remember that the DOJ bureaucrats are always eyeing their next target. And remember that in a constitutional republic, the answer to a humorous meme should be another meme, a rebuttal, a block button – anything but handcuffs.
Shane Harris is the Editor in Chief of AMAC Newsline. You can follow him on X @shaneharris513.
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