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Free Speech

Posting "I Wish Someone Would In Alive Him" About Federal Judge Isn't Punishable Threat

Eugene Volokh | 8.7.2026 8:32 AM

From Judge Carlos Mendoza (M.D. Fla.) in U.S. v. Joudeh:

Defendant is charged with one count of transmission of an interstate threat to injure or kill another person in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 875(c). The facts alleged in the Indictment state that Defendant violated this statute via "an online comment that included the statement, 'I wish someone would in alive him.'" The Indictment provides no further information as to where or why this comment was posted, to whom it was communicated, or who the referenced "him" is in the comment.

The "him" was, however, apparently identified in this search warrant affidavit:

On June 22, 2025, United States District Court Judge, John L. Badalamenti contacted the United States Marshals Service (USMS) for the Middle District of Florida regarding a threat stemming from reaction to a June 21, 2025, New York Times article called, A White Nationalist Wrote a Law School Paper Promoting Racist Views, It won Him an Award. Judge Badalamenti is an adjunct professor at the University of Florida and taught a seminar class in the fall semester of 2024 on the legal theory originalism.

The New York Times article focuses on a capstone paper a student wrote for Judge Badalamenti's class. The student's paper, according to the article, argued that the framers of the Constitution intended the phrase We the People to refer exclusively to white people. As such, in the paper, the student argued for the removal of voting rights protections for nonwhite people and issuance of shoot-to-kill orders against criminal infiltrators at the border. The student obtained the book award, which the article describes as meaning the student was........

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