{"id":6132,"date":"2015-06-10T16:06:00","date_gmt":"2015-06-10T16:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/sccblog\/?p=6132"},"modified":"2015-10-14T12:57:10","modified_gmt":"2015-10-14T07:27:10","slug":"right-to-free-speech-on-social-media-favored","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/2015\/06\/10\/right-to-free-speech-on-social-media-favored\/","title":{"rendered":"Right to free speech on social media, favored"},"content":{"rendered":"<p ><font size=\"3\"><b><span lang=\"EN-US\">Supreme Court of United States<\/span><\/b><span lang=\"EN-US\"><font face=\"Times New Roman, serif\">&#8211; Giving a landmark judgment upholding free speech online, the Court by the majority of 8:1, quashed the Third Circuit decision ruling that it is unnecessary to consider any First Amendment issues and the petitioner\u2019s conviction cannot stand. The Court held that the Third Circuit\u2019s decision, requiring only negligence with respect to the communication of a threat, is not sufficient to support a conviction under 18 U. S. C. \u00a7875(c). Section 875(c) requires proof that a&nbsp;communication&nbsp;was transmitted which contained a threat. Roberts CJ, giving the majority judgment further&nbsp;observed that the federal criminal liability generally does not turn solely on the results of an act without considering the defendant\u2019s mental state.<\/font><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p ><span lang=\"EN-US\"  ><font size=\"3\">The facts state the petitioner, after his wife left him, under the pseudonym \u201cTone Dougie,\u201d used the social networking web site Facebook to post self-styled rap lyrics containing graphically violent language and imagery concerning his wife, co-workers, a kindergar\u00adten class, and state and federal law enforcement. Disclaimers that the lyrics were \u201cfictitious\u201d and not intended to depict real persons, and with statements that Elonis was exercising his First Amendment rights were often dispersed in those posts. The petitioner was charged with five counts of violating 18 U. S. C. \u00a7875(c), which makes it a federal crime to transmit in interstate commerce \u201cany communication containing any threat (&#8230;) to injure the person of another\u201d.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p ><span lang=\"EN-US\"><font size=\"3\">The Court emphasized that the defendant under Section 875(c) must know that he is transmitting a communication which alone will not make the conduct \u201cwrongful. The mental state requirement must apply to the fact that the communication contains a threat. The petitioner\u2019s conviction herein was premised solely on how his posts would be understood by a reasonable person. The Court further observed that the \u201creasonable person\u201d is inconsistent with \u201cthe conventional requirement for criminal conduct, <i>awareness <\/i>of some wrongdoing\u201d and the <\/font><font size=\"3\"><font color=\"#000000\" face=\"Times New Roman, serif\">mental state require\u00adment is satisfied only if the person transmits a communication for the purpose of issuing a threat or with knowledge that the&nbsp;communication&nbsp;will be viewed as a&nbsp;threat. <\/font><i>Elonis v. United States<\/i><font color=\"#000000\" face=\"Times New Roman, serif\">, 575 U.S. __ (2015), decided on 01.06.2015<\/font><\/font><font color=\"#000000\" face=\"Times New Roman, serif\"><o:p><\/o:p><\/font><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Supreme Court of United States&#8211; Giving a landmark judgment upholding free speech online, the Court by the majority of 8:1, quashed the <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7321,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-foreigncourts"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.4 (Yoast SEO v27.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Right to free speech 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