Guetzloe has now appealed to the Florida Supreme Court. The justices should grab the case, strike down Florida’s anti-speech regulations and free Mr. Guetzloe from the government threat still hovering over his head.

On the constitutional matter, the U.S. Supreme Court seemed clear enough in McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Commission (1995), the case of an Ohio woman fined for distributing anonymous fliers at a school board meeting, after a school official filed a complaint:

Under our Constitution, anonymous pamphleteering is not a pernicious, fraudulent practice, but an honorable tradition of advocacy and dissent. Anonymity is a shield from the tyranny of the majority. It thus exemplifies the purpose behind the Bill of Rights, and of the First Amendment in particular: to protect unpopular individuals from retaliation — and their ideas from suppression — at the hand of an intolerant society.

Guetzloe is not popular. With some. That is, he has plenty of enemies.

Yet, arguably, he and his Ax the Tax organization are responsible for defeating $25 billion in tax increases through the years, including a recent local attempt to hike taxes $8.8 billion. That can make a man unpopular with powerful officials.

Though, doesn’t it sort of show he must be a lot more popular with voters?

Having battled in politics and public relations for the last 30 years, Guetzloe’s certainly no newcomer to controversy. He told me he has “a defective gene” inherited from an ancestor who fought in the Revolutionary War. Because of this gene, he says, “I’d rather grab a musket than have tea at 4:00 pm.”

But the issue isn’t whether we like Guetzloe or his message. The issue is whether he — and we — will possess the most basic freedom of speech. Or be silenced by threats.

The speech regulators no longer engage in mere civil harassment: now they apply the handcuffs and iron bars.

If we let the jail door slam shut on Doug Guetzloe, who will be next?