By Ana Choi
Today, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments for Elonis v. United States, an important case dealing with freedom of speech in the context of social media. Petitioner Anthony Elonis was charged and convicted under 18 U.S.C. § 875(c)—which forbids “any threat to injure the person of another”—after composing a series of threatening Facebook posts about his wife, his co-workers, law enforcement officers, and even an unspecified elementary school. The question to be decided is whether conviction for making a threat requires proof of a subjective intent to threaten, or whether it is enough to show that a “reasonable person” would perceive the statement as threatening. [Read more…] about Facebook Threats: Will Prosecutors Have to Prove Subjective Intent?