“Other people have no First Amendment right to your phone and free speech doesn’t protect telephone harassment.”

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost posted those words on social media after opening an inquiry into hateful texts that reached Ohioans, which were part of a nationwide text effort that threatened Black men, women and children and implied a return of slavery was imminent. Students as young as middle school reported receiving the texts.

According to a report by The Journal-News, some of the texts included instructions for reporting to plantations and mentioned picking cotton. Others suggested the receiver should show up at a particular time “with your belongings.”

Yost rightly called the texts “despicable” as he joined the FBI, the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Communications Commission in opening inquiries.

Yost and leaders of the other agencies digging in to this incident must not let up the pressure, and must heed Roberts’ advice: “We have to take it serious, investigate it and prosecute it to the full extent of the law.”