What exactly counts as a “threat” on social media has been a topic of debate before the Supreme Court, which has consented to hear the case.
However, the Rutherford Institute’s legal experts have cautioned that a negative outcome might give the government practically unrestricted authority to prosecute political speech.
The current case originates from Colorado, which has recently received criticism from the supreme court for its hostility toward the Christian faith.
The case in question, according to Rutherford, is Counterman v. Colorado, in which the defendant’s attorneys contend that if successful, “the government could use overly broad stalking laws to treat expressive activities on social media as true threats, which are not protected by the First Amendment without having to prove that the message is both reasonably understood and intended to threaten an illegal act.”
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Battlefield America: The War on the American People author and constitutional lawyer John W. Whitehead remarked, “The government must not be granted the authority to outlaw speech it considers objectionable or infuriating.”
Nowhere in the First Amendment does it allow the government to censor speech in order to avoid offending or hurting someone’s feelings, shield public servants from criticism, prevent bullying, punish unpleasant ideas, fight bigotry and intolerance, or other similar goals.
“A person can be charged with stalking for repeatedly contacting, surveilling, or engaging with an individual in such a way that a reasonable person would feel substantial emotional distress,” Rutherford said of Colorado’s “stalking” law.
It detailed, “The Colorado Supreme Court created new standards in June 2020 for identifying threatening speech and protected speech in the social media era. The court understood that “social media…amplify the potential for an innocent speaker’s words to be misunderstood” and that “a listener’s subjective reaction, without more, should not be dispositive of whether a statement is a true threat,” which the court defined as “a serious expression of intent to commit an act of unlawful violence,” were important points to note.”
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The company claimed, “According to the decision, courts should take into account both the wording and the context of an alleged threat when communicating it online, taking into account the statement’s place in a larger interaction. The question of whether a speaker must have a subjective intent to really frighten the addressee was not taken into consideration by the court.”
Billy Counterman was charged with stalking in 2016 after allegedly sending Facebook messages to the accounts of a Denver artist over the course of 24 months.
“Despite the fact that none of the texts specifically threatened any wrongdoing or unlawful activity, the musician regarded them as threats and asked for a restraining order against Counterman. After being convicted guilty of stalking, Counterman received a 4.5-year prison term “stated Rutherford.
But according to Counterman’s appeal, Colorado law does not require that speech constitute a real threat in order to be penalized criminally.
“Protecting people from stalking is certainly a valid concern and may be warranted in this particular case,” Rutherford warned in a friend-of-the-court brief. “However, such a broad-reaching law could empower the government to misinterpret any speaker’s intent and meaning in order to criminalize legitimate political speech that is critical of government officials and representatives.”
EDITOR’S NOTE: What is behind the current war against America’s children? Why are so many adults killing their unborn children right up to the moment of birth, or even after? Why are millions of kids sexualized virtually from birth, and injected with an experimental “vaccine” proven to be both ineffective and dangerous, then as toddlers transported to events glorifying mentally ill, demonically possessed men dressed as women?
Why are America’s children systematically sexualized at school, and by transgender recruiters on social media platforms like TikTok, seducing many into “identifying” as the opposite gender, or a brand-new imaginary gender, then encouraged to take powerful drugs and hormones and have their healthy breasts amputated or undergo chemical or surgical castration?
Why are our children simultaneously indoctrinated with toxic Marxist ideologies like “critical race theory” intended to condition them to hate and reject their own country, parents, faith, race, gender and themselves? Why are they simultaneously being frightened of the future by being fed lurid, terrifying – and groundless – apocalyptic tales of the imminent destruction of the world due to global warming?
No wonder youth suicides have skyrocketed, as have depression, anxiety, addiction and drug overdoses. Indeed, fentanyl, the No. 1 cause of death of younger Americans 18 to 45, destroys multitudes of children annually.
Make no mistake: The harm being done to America’s children in this multi-front war is not accidental: Children are the primary target.
WHY? How can all this be happening in the greatest nation on earth? Who and what is behind it? And HOW CAN IT BE STOPPED?
Find out in the explosive January issue of WND’s critically acclaimed monthly Whistleblower magazine, “WINNING THE WAR AGAINST AMERICA’S CHILDREN,” available in both print and state-of-the-art digital editions.
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