Are Online Death Threats Protected Free Speech? Supreme Court To Decide

Depending upon your point of view, Anthony Elonis is either a sociopath bent on harassing and intimidating anyone who wrongs him; or an admittedly-disturbed, aspiring rapper. A disturbed rapper whose online death threats, which he says are his lyrics, are protected free speech. It will be up to the Supreme Court to decide which is which.

In agreeing to hear the case of Elonis v. United Sates, the Supreme Court has to decide whether the government was right to imprison him for a series of Facebook posts, sometimes accompanied by disturbing images, in which he either violently threatened his ex-wife, a coworker, and an FBI agent, or simply expressed his emotions.

In October 2010, five months after his wife, Tara, left him and took the couple’s two children, Elonis posted a Facebook post that started his legal troubles, according to The New York Times.

”If I only knew then what I know now… I would have smothered your a** with a pillow. Dumped your body in the back seat. Dropped you off in Toad Creek and made it look like a rape and murder.”

After similar posts – many of which she took as thinly-veiled death threats – Tara got an order of protection (called a PFA – Protection From Abuse order in Pennsylvania) against Anthony.

“I also found out that it’s incredibly illegal, extremely illegal to go on Facebook and say something like the best place to fire a mortar launcher at her house would be from the cornfield behind it because of easy access to a getaway road and you’d have a clear line of sight through the sun room.’Yet even more illegal to show an illustrated diagram. Art is about pushing limits,” his post concluded. ”I’m willing to go to jail for my Constitutional rights. Are you?”

At about the same time Elonis was making the posts directed at his wife, he was targeting a coworker as well. At the time of the alleged death threats against his wife, Elonis was working at an amusement park near Allentown, Pennsylvania. For Halloween, Elonis posted a picture of himself holding a fake knife to a coworker’s throat, with the caption “I wish.” His boss noticed the photo, fired Elonis, and contacted the FBI.

According to The Washington Post, Elonis responded to the FBI agent with the same panache he’d reserved for his coworker and his estranged wife: thinly-veiled death threats.

“Little Agent Lady stood so close. Took all the strength I had not to turn the b— ghost. Pull my knife, flick my wrist, and slit her throat.”

Elonis was charged with violating a federal law that criminalizes using electronic communication (such as the internet) to threaten to harm or injure another person.

Elonis attempted to defend himself by saying that his death threats and other violent posts were merely artistic expressions. In fact, says The Washington Post, Elonis even made it a point to take on a rapper persona, giving himself the name Tone Dougie, and made sure to include references to other rappers, their art, and the First Amendment, throughout his posts.

The jury didn’t buy it, and Elonis served three years in federal prison.

In taking Elonis’ case, the Supreme Court will have to decide on the role that social media plays with regard to death threats, and other threats of violence. And although Elonis has already served his time, the Court’s ruling could have broad First Amendment implications, particularly for other rappers. For example, San Diego rapper Tiny Doo is currently facing life in prison for murder simply because his rap lyrics brag about murders committed by his gang, according to this Inquisitr report.

Do you believe that making death threats toward someone via social media should be considered protected free speech?

[Image courtesy of: Forbes]