Volokh argues that Mr. now-ex State Department crosses the line.

I am not up on US free speech precedent enough to say, but the gut says that in the end it's just angry insulting opinion and therefore constitutionally protected speech. In discussions here, we've broached the issue of racist speech, and I tend to be on the fundamentalist pro-free speech side. This is one case that illustrates why it's a tough call, but I think the free speechniks are right in general and in this case should be out demanding that the government allege and prove alot of incidental details that would make this rise to the level of a direct threat rather than merely nasty abusive opinion. (I also think it does matter a bit that it's an advocacy group with a public operation being addressed, after a public presentation, and therefore to some extent they risk as a normal expectation the input of abusive hateful bigoted rants and opinions (as opposed to direct threats) .

In other words, there should also be a higher standard as to what constitutes a threat in that situation, as opposed to say calling up some stranger of Arab background and venting in the middle of the night which would have additional factors to consider.)

Volokh does a good job distilling the key quotes, made during the Lebanon war last summer, so let me plagiarize shamelessly his hard work here:

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[Voice mail to the Institute:] This is Patrick Syring. I just read James Zogby's statements online on the MSNBC website, and I condemn him for his anti-Semitism and anti-American statements. The only good Lebanese is a dead Lebanese. The only good Arab is a dead Arab. Long live the IDF. Death to Lebanon and death to the Arabs.

[E-mail to two Institute employees; all e-mails sent to work addresses:] Zogby's anti-Semitic, anti-American statements (and those of the AAI in general) are abhorrent, repulsive and disgusting. The only good Lebanese is a dead Lebanese (as the IDF knows and is carrying out in its security operations, God bless them.) Fuck the Arabs and Fuck James Zogby and his wicked Hizbollah brothers. They will burn in hellfire on this earth and in the hereafter.

[Voice mail to an Institute employee:] Hello Valerie, you fucking Arab American shit. James Zogby and you are all Hezballah supporters. The only good Arab is a dead Arab... You God [inaudible] bitch.

[E-mail to an Institute employee:] You are a fucking anti-Semitic Arab-American stooge who sympathizes with Hezballah terror. You and your Arab American Institute fuckers should burn in the fires of hell for eternity. The IDF is bombing Lebanon back into the stone age where it belongs. Arabs are dogs. Long live the State of Israel. Death to Arab American terrorists. The only good Lebanese is a dead Lebanese.

[E-mail to an Institute employee:] You are a fucking Arab American terrorist, a Hezbollah sympathizer pig. James Zogby is a vile evil anti-Semitic pig terrorist member of Hezbollah who is attempting to destroy the State of Israel. God Bless America[.] God Bless the State of Israel[.] The only good Lebanese is a dead Lebanese [a smiley face graphic]

[Voice mail to the Institute:] Hello, I'm Patrick I'm in Arlington VA, and I think James Zogby is worse than Osama bin Laden. Since he supports Hezballah, he's an anti-Semitic motherfucker, and the only good Arab is a dead Arab.

[E-mail to several Institute employees:] I condemn James Zogby and the AAI for perpetrating the murder and shootings at the Jewish Federation in Seattle on Friday July 28 (as well as the killings in Israel). You wicked evil Hezbollah-supporting Arabs should burn in the fires of hell for eternity and beyond. The United States would be safer without you. God Bless the State of Israel[.] God Bless America[.]

________

All is not lost, however. I hear Mr. Syring now has a job-offer from the American Enterprise Institute.

OK, I was kidding there.

But this is reportedly true: he did work as a commercial or consular officer for the US Embassy to Lebanon but as this State Department info sheet notes, and I can recall, such services were run out the embassy in Damascus, Syria..