Subject: Re: It's time to ban flag burning
How are you drawing that conclusion?

Because this case is (newly) making the rounds on conservative media, and commentators are describing it as an example of someone receiving an unjustly long sentence because the government especially didn't like the content of his speech. But that's not what drove up his sentence, any more than Andrade got 50 years without parole because the there's a massive sentence that comes with video shoplifting.

He got the lengthy sentence because Iowa's got a three strikes rule, and this was his third strike. The prosecutor and the judge took a look at this guy's record and decided to use the third strike law to keep him from getting back on the streets. That's why he got 15 years.