Weaponized laws!-----A Texas Reporter Busted for Asking Questions Asks SCOTUS To Reject the Criminalization of Journalism

By asking police questions about a public suicide and a fatal car crash for stories on her locally popular Facebook page, they claimed, she had committed felonies punishable by two to 10 years in prison. - JACOB SULLUM

"In 1973, the Texas Legislature made "misuse of official information" a misdemeanor...
Forty-four years later, police and prosecutors in Laredo deployed an amended and expanded version of that anti-corruption law against Priscilla Villarreal, a local journalist whose freewheeling news coverage and criticism of law enforcement officials had irked them. 

• By asking police questions about a public suicide and a fatal car crash for stories on her locally popular Facebook page, they claimed, she had committed felonies punishable by two to 10 years in prison.
• In January, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit said there was nothing "obviously unconstitutional" about arresting Villarreal for engaging in basic journalism. 

...Those implications stem from the abuse of a vague, inartfully worded state law that was aimed at preventing public officials and their cronies from taking financial advantage of inside information...

According to the 5th Circuit, the "benefit" that Villarreal derived by maintaining "her first-to-report reputation" included ad revenue and "free meals from appreciative readers."...