Divorced dad’s blog becomes free-speech test

By Freda R. Savana, PhillyBurbs.com

A Doylestown Township man is claiming a Bucks County judge violated his freedom of speech and his right to due process by ordering him to shut down thepsychoexwife.com, a blog he began in 2007 to discuss his bitter divorce and child custody battle.

Anthony Morelli, 42, complied last month with the order handed down by Family Court Judge Diane Gibbons. He then hired Doylestown attorney Kevin Handy to appeal the ruling to the Pennsylvania Superior Court, citing violation of his First and 14th Amendment rights.

Gibbons, who through her staff declined to comment on the open matter before the court, made her ruling in an effort to protect the two children of Anthony and Allison Morelli, according to her statements in transcripts of court proceedings. In doing so, she made it clear that violation of the no-blog ruling could jeopardize Morelli’s standing in the custody case.

Court records show Gibbons told Anthony Morelli and his girlfriend, Misty Weaver-Ostinato, who created the website, are wrong if they believe the order infringed on their free speech.

“This is about children,” said the judge during a June 14 hearing. “You may say anything that you would like to say. You may publish it. You may put it on a billboard. But you will not have your children, because that is abusive.”

To read more, visit:  http://www.phillyburbs.com/divorced-dad-s-blog-becomes-free-speech-test/article_c2ed3814-b3b3-11e0-abbe-0019bb30f31a.html

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