The US Supreme Court has added another free-speech case to its docket, this one dealing with “true threats,” which are unprotected by the First Amendment.
The justices agreed on Friday to consider what prosecutors must show to prove that a defendant intended to make threatening statements.
It’s an issue the court agreed to decide in 2015’s Elonis v. United States. Instead, it left the knowledge issue open in deciding the case narrowly.
The latest case was brought by Billy Raymond Counterman, who was convicted of stalking after sending what prosecutors say were threatening Facebook messages to a local musician.
For determining unprotected speech, the question turns on whether a message was intended as threatening, or whether a reasonable person would consider it so.
Free speech is also at the heart of one of the term’s most consequential cases, 303 Creative v. Elenis. The justices consider whether a Colorado website designer can refuse to make wedding websites for same-sex couples because doing so would violate her religious beliefs.
The case is Counterman v. Colorado, U.S., No. 22-138.
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