The U.S. Supreme Court has granted certiorari in a criminal case involving the free speech rights of a criminal defendant who used threatening language in the form of rap lyrics on Facebook, the Associated Press reports. (I covered the trial of Anthony Elonis when I worked for the Legal Intelligencer, Pennsylvania's legal newspaper.)
Federal prosecutors successfully got the district judge to apply an objective standard for the jurors to decide if Elonis' posts were threatening, but Elonis' counsel argued that a subjective standard should have been applied, AP reports.
The U.S. Supreme Court has said that "true threats" are not protected speech, AP also reports.
Lawyer and Legal Journalist
