The Supreme Court issued an opinion confirming something we at Cloudflare have long believed -- that the First Amendment protects access to the Internet. Using sweeping language, Justice Kennedy compared internet access to access to a street or park, "essential venues for public gatherings to celebrate some views, to protest others, or simply to learn and inquire,” and concluded that "to foreclose access to social media altogether is to prevent the user from engaging in the legitimate exercise of First Amendment rights."
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In 2008, North Carolina passed a law making it a serious criminal offense for a registered sex offender to access certain social media sites that included children as members. Lester Packingham Jr., the defendant in the case, had registered as a sex offender after pleading guilty in 2002 to having sex with a 13 year old when he was a 21 year old college student.
Packingham was charged with a violation of the North Carolina law after he posted a statement on Facebook expressing his relief about the dismissal of a state court traffic ticket. After his conviction, Packingham appealed, arguing that the law was unconstitutional.
The Supreme Court struck down the law as a violation of the First Amendment, which, among other things, prohibits government action (“shall make no law”) that inhibits free expression or assembly. Although all eight justices to rule on the issue (the newest Justice, Neil Gorsuch, didn’t participate in this decision) agreed that the North Carolina law was unconstitutional, the Justices disagreed on the scope of First Amendment protections.
Writing on behalf of five members of the Court, Justice Kennedy emphasized the importance of protecting access to the internet, noting the substantial benefits it provides:
“Social media allows users to gain access to information and communicate with one another about it on any subject that might come to mind. . . . By prohibiting sex offenders from using those websites, North Carolina with one broad stroke bars access to what for many are the principal sources for knowing current events, checking ads for employment, speaking and listening in the modern public square, and otherwise exploring the vast realms of human thought and knowledge. These websites can provide perhaps the most powerful mechanisms available to a private citizen to make his or her voice heard. They allow a person with an Internet connection to ‘become a town crier with a voice that resonates farther than it could from any soapbox.’”
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Originally Posted by Warlord
Memory malfunction. Send backup immediately.
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