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posted by takyon on Monday June 08 2015, @02:48PM   Printer-friendly
from the mad-rhymes dept.

After Anthony Elonis's wife left him, he began to write graphically violent rap lyrics and post them to his Facebook account. In several posts, he fantasized about murdering his estranged wife. Others contained violent thoughts about the workplace from which he had been fired, his former co-workers, and an FBI agent who had investigated the matter. In one post, he even talked about massacring a local kindergarten class.

The decision? Intent to threaten must be demonstrated in order to convict for the criminal offense of "transmission of threats in interstate commerce". The court did not rule on whether or not "recklessness" would be sufficient.

The 7-2 ruling reversed the judgment of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and "narrowed the circumstances under which individuals can be convicted of making criminal threats under federal law when they post statements on social media like Facebook."

On Monday, the Supreme Court handed Elonis a victory by overturning his conviction. At the same time, however, the Court declined his invitation to issue a broad ruling on First Amendment grounds. Instead, the majority took a minimalist approach, deciding no more than was absolutely necessary to dispose of the case before it.

See also: Oyez and Justia.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 08 2015, @07:01PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 08 2015, @07:01PM (#193766)

    Plus Eminem and other rappers who are public figures and professional entertainers are very unlikely to be rapping about some crime that they actually intend to commit. Some nobody who works 9 to 5 in a normal job rapping about dismembering someone who they perceive as wronged them probably has a pretty good chance of intending to commit the act and/or the target of the rapping probably has a reasonable belief that they may be harmed. Comparing this to professional entertainers is a really bad and flawed comparison.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 08 2015, @07:42PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 08 2015, @07:42PM (#193783)

    Some nobody who works 9 to 5 in a normal job rapping about dismembering someone who they perceive as wronged them probably has a pretty good chance of intending to commit the act and/or the target of the rapping probably has a reasonable belief that they may be harmed.

    And you've determined that this is true for this specific individual how? The legal system deals with individuals, or should.

    • (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 08 2015, @08:18PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 08 2015, @08:18PM (#193796)

      History and empirical evidence leads one to this. Of all the famous, professional rappers I can think of only Slick Rick who actually committed some crimes close to what he was rapping about. (Of course, there's Suge Knight, but he's a producer.) Cool C in the 90s killed a police officer, but he didn't rap about that. I remember some rapper named Murder C who ironically murdered a guy, but he wasn't famous or that successful. I digress. The major point is, a professional rapper's main goal is to make a living, entertaining. That often means painting a picture in order to entertain, much like an actor acts. Someone who works at bank or shoe store who isn't in the business of entertaining who raps about killing someone close to them may be attempting to entertain, but they're in dangerous territory, and they're infringing on the rights of someone else, unless you enjoy having someone you know well rapping about murdering you in awful ways.