In 2012, I represented Lester Packingham in the Durham county court and argued pretrial that a North Carolina law prohibiting registered sex offenders from accessing social networking websites was an unconstitutional infringement on his First Amendment rights. The judge denied the motion and the case was appealed. On appeal, the NC Appellate Court agreed with my argument but the NC Supreme did not. The case was accepted by the US Supreme Court and oral argument was heard on February 27, 2017. This is the link for the oral argument: www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/argument_transcripts/2016/15-1194_0861.pdf.
The New York Times reported:
“A Supreme Court argument on Monday about whether North Carolina may bar registered sex offenders from using Facebook, Twitter and similar services turned into a discussion of how thoroughly social media have transformed American civic discourse.The justices’ remarks, which indicated easy familiarity with the major social media services, suggested that they would strike down the North Carolina law under the First Amendment. Justice Elena Kagan said that President Trump, every governor and every member of Congress has a Twitter account.’So this has become a crucially important channel of political communication,” she said. “And a person couldn’t go onto those sites and find out what these members of our government are thinking or saying or doing.'”(www.nytimes.com/2017/02/27/us/politics/supreme-court-north-carolina-sex-offenders-social-media.html.)
I will post a new blog entry when this case is decided but it appears that the justices recognize the importance of access to websites in 21st century life.
