[mfringel]

One novel way to think about the First Amendment is that it constrains two specific actors.

1) It explicitly constrains the US Government. 2) It implicitly constrains anyone who approximates the coercive power of the US government.

#1 is self-explanatory.

#2 implies that, in the US, anyone who attempts to use overwhelming coercive power of any form to silence speech tends to get looked on poorly by the law.

If Fetlife has a fraud rate that approaches normal and the banks cut them off anyway, it would be an interesting court fight.

[tptacek]

That is indeed a novel way of looking at the First Amendment.