No Free Speech for Lawyers – The Forced Silencing of Todd Kincannon
If you’re on Twitter you probably know who Todd Kincannon is. If you’re a liberal, you hate him with a passion. If you’re a conservative, while more inclined to like him, you very well may hate him anyway. To his fans (over 61,000 of them) he’s a hero who offers up tweets, often cringe-worthy, that rattle liberals so hard most just give up whatever argument they thought they were going to have. Others get so offended they conjure up fake Todd profiles, make up stories about him and even drag his new wife into it. For a long time, Ashely Kincannon, known as the “First Lady of Twitter,” was “fake” according to Todd haters! No woman would possibly put up with that “misogynistic, racist, horrible man,” right? Not only does she exist, she seems to be perfect and she’s certainly understanding! Even their dog, a Golden named “Noodle,” has his own account and fan following as the “First Dog of Twitter.”
J. Todd Kincannon is the former executive director of the South Carolina Republican Party, the “former” being something his “haters” seem to miss since they constantly complain to them. He’s the owner of the very successful Kincannon Law Firm in Columbia, S.C. While he’s been in the news several times for his Twitter rants, none caused more mass liberal hysteria then his “misogynistic anti-Wendy Davis Twitter attack.” It earned him breathless headlines like, “Former GOP Director Todd Kincannon’s Twitter Feed is the Most Awful Thing Ever” (Oh, the horror!) from Forward Progressives and other shockfests. It’s easy to be shocked by some of his tweets, but it’s also reminiscent of something…liberal fighting. The tolerant people most “offended” by his style are usually ten times as bad. He has them figured out, that’s why he’s so effective.
A few months ago, Kincannon announced he was writing a book and he said he’d let me do the first interview about it. I put it out of my mind knowing it would be awhile until it was finished. Towards the end of June, people who log onto Twitter in the evening (many just to see his tweets) started asking where he was. I looked back and saw he’d last tweeted in mid-June. Soon after, when Ashely sent out emails about book inscriptions, I asked her about his whereabouts and the interview but didn’t hear back so I assumed they’d let me know when he was available. I didn’t expect what I got last night.
The email begins, “If you are receiving this email, it means you ordered a copy of my book. Yet no one has received any copies yet, and I owe you an explanation why.” Kincannon goes on to explain that he is “legally barred from fulfilling the order” because the South Carolina Commission on Lawyer Conduct and the South Carolina Office of Disciplinary Counsel have said his Twitter commentary is “unethical” and there’s been a two-year long secret investigation of him by both offices. He notes the Disciplinary Counsel has “solid Democrat voting histories.”
Apparently they believe that lawyers in South Carolina don’t have the right to enjoy the First Amendment, at least Republican lawyers. Kincannon says to his knowledge, no Democrat lawyers have faced such action. Kincannon’s Twitter account is easily among the most visible and popular out there. Two years ago, tired of conservative accounts being “spamblocked” (reported by multiple people for “spam” when there was none and suspended, aka “gulaged”) he came up with the hashtag “#TGDN,” Twitter Gulag Defense Network. There are thousands of conservative “members” of TGDN and it’s one of the most popular hashtags on Twitter. Even though it started as a way to avoid being suspended, it’s become a well-recognized symbol of his fans and easy visual of, “I’m a conservative, too.” Is it Kincannon’s ability to bring such a massive group of conservatives together that’s oh so threatening to the Democrats?
South Carolina lawyer disciplinary authorities are government agents and surprise, they are playing dirty pool with Kincannon. In 2012, they indicated that they wouldn’t punish him for any political or religious commentary they disagreed with. Yet in early June, he was informed the investigation was going to continue because of tweets he wrote about left wing political activist and frequent MSNBC guest Col. Morris Davis. Kincannon says he has no indication Davis complained, “[I]t appears a supporter of his filed a bar complaint on me, the seventh or eighth complaint filed on me in recent times.” This reeks of the IRS scandal. The government doesn’t like comments a lawyer makes on Twitter so they can prevent him from selling his book and shut him up on Twitter? This is insane.
In his email, Todd wrote, “This case is one of the absolute best arguments against state licensing for professions. Once government gets its dictatorial foot in the door, everyone in the room becomes a slave to whatever group of petty tyrants happens to run that wing of government at any given point in time.” Not surprising in the least, he isn’t taking this laying down. Yesterday he filed a lawsuit in Federal Court. “This action is primarily a civil rights complaint,” writes Kincannon. “[The Defendants are attempting] to deprive the Plaintiff of his fundamental rights of free speech, equal protection. and due process.”
As long as the current administration is in office, we will continue to see the escalation of incidents like these. After what the Democrats have got away with over the past five years, if Hillary or another Democrat wins in 2016, they already know they can essentially do whatever they want once in office. If a conservative wins, Americans will still have to push to bring our country back to where it should be. The amount of government is staggering and totally unnecessary. For every Todd Kincannon, for every True the Vote, there’s probably fifty more who can’t fight back.
If you’re conservative and can’t stomach Kincannon”s style of fight, it’s still imperative that we stop the liberal machine from steamrolling over conservative and Republican rights like this. They’re completely comfortable with their behavior and their belief that if they don’t like it, it shouldn’t exist. They want us to “Coexist,” unless we’re Christian. They preach tolerance but have none. I don’t need to go down the list. Todd made a good point in his email, “If I lose my right to speak freely because I am a state licensed professional, anyone in a state licensed profession is subject to having their free speech rights taken away from them.”
With a reminder to stay within the bounds of law and ethics, Todd Kincannon closed his email with this, “Don’t just expect fireworks, folks. Create them.”
View Kincannon vs. SC Commission on Lawyer Conduct
Contact the South Carolina Commission on Lawyer Conduct at (803) 734-2037
Contact the South Carolina Office of Disciplinary Counsel at (803) 734-2038
