By the time he was freed on April 3, 24-year-old blogger Josh Wolf had spent seven months in a California federal prison for refusing a federal subpoena.

Citing the California journalist shield law, Wolf insisted that he didn't have to provide prosecutors with video footage of a July 2005 riot in which a San Francisco Police Department car was damaged. The Feds claimed the car was federal property because the police department receives federal homeland security funds. Therefore, the federal government claimed jurisdiction over the matter, and the shield law didn't apply.

Wolf was freed because he agreed to post the riot footage on his website, rather than providing it to the prosecutors. Press freedom advocates considered this a partial triumph, but the agreement was a Pyrrhic victory at best, since it validated the claim of federal jurisdiction.

Nearly all police departments receive federal homeland security and counter-narcotics funds. All police agencies receiving even minute subsides are now considered appendages of the Washington. Those strings of federal subsidy must be cut.

Let us stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.