Supreme Court to decide whether sex offenders can be barred from social media
February 28, 2017 | Uncategorized
The Supreme Court this week suggested that it may strike down a North Carolina law that makes it illegal for registered sex offenders to use Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites, with several justices signaling that the broadly-worded statute could violate free speech rights.
As Bloomberg reports, the court on Monday heard an appeal from Lester Gerard Packingham, a registered sex offender in North Carolina who was arrested in 2010 for setting up a Facebook account under a fake name. Packingham was added to the sex offender registry in 2002, after he was arrested for having sex with a 13-year-old girl and pleaded guilty. He was given a suspended jail sentence, but was later arrested for a Facebook post in which he thanked God…