[ExI] free speech: how times have changed

[spike]

Our legal system is long accustomed to dealing with published liable and
threats if they were written in a newspaper or published in some
ink-on-paper form.  The system doesn't quite know what to do with internet
or email posts.  We have seen crazy extremes, where prosecutions went
forward for a perceived internet threat which wasn't intended as a threat at
all and was posted to a private internet group.  Now we see what looks like
a specific intentional threat, posted on a wide-open forum (Facebook) and
the Supreme Court doesn't really explain to lower courts how to deal with
it:

 

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/06/01/supreme-court-throws-out-convicti
on-for-facebook-threats/

 

>From the article:

 

The Supreme Court on Monday threw out the conviction of a Pennsylvania man
convicted of making threats on Facebook, but dodged the free speech issues
that had made the case intriguing to First Amendment advocates. 

.

One post about his wife said, "There's one way to love you but a thousand
ways to kill you. I'm not going to rest until your body is a mess, soaked in
blood and dying from all the little cuts." 

After his wife obtained the protective order, Elonis wrote: "Is it thick
enough to stop a bullet?" 

Sheesh.

 

spike

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