7th Circuit Strikes Down Sex Offender Ban on Social Media

The  7th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled yesterday that an Indiana Law prohibiting a convicted sex offenders from using social media, violates the First Amendment Right to Free Speech. The ACLU brought the suit on behalf of John Doe, an anonymous registered sex offender who had been convicted of child exploitation.  Doe challenged Indiana Code Sec 35-42-4-12, which disallows registered sex offenders from using websites, chat rooms and instant messaging services if such entities are known to be accessible to minors.  In rendering the decision, Judge Joel Flaum, writing for the three member panel, found that the statute “broadly prohibits substantial protracted speech rather than specifically targeting the evil of improper commu I action to minors”.  What do you think?  Did the court get it right?

 

 

 

 

What do we mean when we say social media?

The Dayton Business Journal recently published the list of the top ten most visited social media websites. The list was compiled based on total number of visits.  No big surprise with Facebook, YouTube and Twitter in the top three spots.  Interesting to me was that Pintrest ranked fourth and that two relatively new sites, MeetMe and Tagged, scored pretty high up there, bumping Yelp at the same time.  Nothing much legal about a list of sites, but I think it interesting to have a sense of just what we are speaking of when we say “social media.”

“Social Media” Speech Protected at work

After we all agreed that we use social media as a way to vent about the life of a law student it makes sense that most people like to do the same thing by venting on fbook. It is good that people can have a sense of group therapy without having to fear they might lose their job. Apparently, the NLRB feels the same way!  An NY Times article concerning the NLRB’s series of decisions can be found here.

 

Judge Probably Wants to Call an Audible

Johnny Manziel, also known as “Johnny Football” won the Heisman trophy in his freshman year, the quickest ever to do so. He also  is pretty quick on the road. He received a speeding ticket after the season ended. What makes this story interesting is that we found out about the speeding ticket because Judge W. Lee posted the news on his Facebook account.

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