"Is it thick enough to stop a bullet?"

[Bob Of Burleson]

Supreme Court case tests the limits
of free speech on Facebook
and other social media

By Robert Barnes
The Washington Post

About a week after Tara Elonis persuaded a judge to issue a protective order against her estranged husband, Anthony, her soon-to-be ex had this to say:

“Fold up your PFA [protection-from-abuse order] and put it in your pocket. Is it thick enough to stop a bullet?”

Anthony Elonis didn’t deliver the message in person, by phone or in a note. Instead, he posted it on his Facebook page, for all to see, in a prose style reminiscent of the violent, misogynistic lyrics of rap artists he admired.

In its first examination of the limits of free speech on social media, the Supreme Court will consider next week whether, as a jury concluded, Elonis’s postings constituted a “true threat” to his wife and others.

The issue is whether Elonis should be prosecuted for what he says was simply blowing off steam — “therapeutic efforts to address traumatic events,” as his brief to the court says — because what matters is not his intent but whether any reasonable person targeted in the rants would regard them as menacing warnings.

MORE

[John in Plano]

Based on this understanding ; 1 person, 1 Facebook account, posting there using real name and Tone Dougie alter ego and FBI had already visited on prior unrelated posting.

Anthony is a bully, not an artist.