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Packingham v. North Carolina

Location: North Carolina
Court Type: U.S. Supreme Court
Status: Ongoing
Last Update: January 9, 2017

What's at Stake

Whether North Carolina can prohibit individuals who are registered sex offenders from 鈥渁ccessing鈥 any social media websites.

North Carolina鈥檚 Section 202.5 of the criminal law makes it a standalone crime for a person who has previously been convicted of a host of sexually related offenses to 鈥渁ccess鈥 a dizzying array of websites, including the websites of major newspapers and ubiquitous social media sites. The defendant in Packingham v. North Carolina was convicted under this law for posting on Facebook that 鈥淕od is good鈥 after he obtained the dismissal of a traffic ticket. In an amicus brief filed with the Supreme Court on behalf of the defendant, the 老澳门开奖结果, the 老澳门开奖结果 of North Carolina, and the Cato Institute argue that North Carolina鈥檚 law violates the First Amendment. The law is unconstitutionally overbroad because, under the definition of social media, it would prevent individuals on the registry from reading or commenting on a huge swathe of websites, including not only all of Twitter and Facebook, but Amazon, the New York Times, and Wikipedia, for example. Nor is the law remotely tailored to the state鈥檚 interest in protecting minors because it restricts the speech of individuals who were never convicted of a crime involving minors, and because even for that narrower category of individuals, it restricts far more of their speech than necessary.

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