The Supreme Court will decide this month whether to take up the case against Tarek Mehanna, a young Muslim American sentenced to 17 1/2 years in prison for translating radical Islamic texts and posting them on a pro-jihadist website he runs. ; Credit: Mark Wilson/Getty Images
The Supreme Court will decide this month whether to take up the case against Tarek Mehanna, a young Muslim American sentenced to 17 1/2 years in prison for translating radical Islamic texts and posting them on a pro-jihadist website he runs.
Mehanna and a friend had traveled to Yemen in 2004 to join a terrorist training camp but was turned away. After his return, he began translating pro-Al Qaeda and Arab-language materials into English.
At issue is whether what he did was protected under the 1st amendment, and whether his translation and dissemination of these texts constituted an incitement of violence. Mehanna was convicted for conspiring to provide material support to terrorists, among other charges, in 2011. His conviction was upheld by by a federal appeals court in Boston in 2013.
Guests:
Rachel VanLandingham, Associate Professor of Law, Southwestern Law School. She is a military law expert and 20-year veteran of the U.S. Air Force
Sahar Aziz, associate professor at Texas A&M School of Law in Fort Worth, Texas where she teaches national security, Middle East, and civil rights law. She is the author of "Policing Terrorists in the Community," which was published in the Harvard National Security Journal