'(a) Whoever transmits in interstate or foreign commerce any communication, with the intent to coerce, intimidate, harass, or cause substantial emotional distress to a person, using electronic means to support severe, repeated, and hostile behavior, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.'

Can trolls apply for a variance?

Wikipedia provides information in the case that sparked this resolution.

My 1st guess was that it involved the bloggers who have received quite nasty death threats that often involved pictures of the blogger and personal information that suggested the anonymous writer was close on that person's trail (in terms of locating them, hunting them down). So I used the google and this came up. Just as bad as the cheerleader murder. Don't know if we need a law for it. The FBI did get a conviction out of the case.

Thanks gypsy sister,

I understand the motivation for such a law, but with such vague language, this could easily become a tool to suppress political dissent. Most laws are written with the best of intentions. Unfortunately in their zeal to appear empathetic, lawmakers often don't think of the consequences of such laws.