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☆ Opinion: The election that couldn’t happen in high school
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-09 | by ( Richard Galant | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +15 min

CNN —In the classic 1999 film, “Election,” the high school student government vote has everything: naked ambition, campaign poster shredding, ballot manipulation, infidelity and more. But what the gifted writer Tom Perotta likely couldn’t imagine was an election in which two unpopular candidates square off for president. That doesn’t happen in high school, even in a satirical movie. The president supports stripping that state of its first-in-the-nation primary status in favor of South Carolina, the state that energized Biden’s 2020 campaign. “In the runup to the 2024 elections, Democrats plan to put the Supreme Court on trial,” wrote David Mark.

Persons: Reese Witherspoon, Tracy Flick, ” Matthew Broderick, Jim McAllister, Tracy, Tom Perotta, Joe Biden, Donald Trump, Trump, Harry Enten, “, Julian Zelizer, ” Biden, Biden, specter, … ” Dana Summers, Robert F, Kennedy Jr, — Lyndon Johnson, Jimmy Carter, George H.W, Bush —, Kennedy, ”, MAGA, Sen, Lindsey Graham’s, Trump’s, Dean Obeidallah, Graham, Michael Flynn, Flynn, Peter Bergen, Erik German, Bill Bramhall, ” “ Flynn, ‘, America’s, …, Geoff Duncan, Drew Sheneman, Roe, Wade, David Mark, … ” Lisa Benson, GoComics.com, Biden romped, Jack Ohman, Kara Alaimo, Coles Whalen, ’, Alice Driver, Clay Jones, Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Meta, David Zurawik, Victoria, Olesya Khromeychuk, Victoria Amelina, Andrei Kartapolov, Sharp, ” Khromeychuk, ” Don’t, Sheikh Mohammed Al, Issa, David A, Nicole Hemmer, Jill Filipovic, Sonia Pruitt, Lynda Lin Grigsby, Sara Stewart, Jharrel Jerome, Boots Riley, Holly Thomas, Phoebe Waller, Indiana Jones, Harrison Ford, He’s, goddaughter Helena, Archimedes, Jones, Waller Organizations: CNN, Capitol, Trump, Biden, Agency, Republicans, RFK Jr, New, ”, FBI, Economic, Republican National, Republican Party, GOP, Democratic, McKinsey & Company, Twitter, Facebook, Russian Duma Defense, Hollywood, “, Indy Locations: New Hampshire, South Carolina, ” Bergen, German, Davos, Georgia, California, “, Russian, Ukrainian, Kramatorsk, Ukraine, New York, Donetsk, Auschwitz, Here’s, Oakland , California

☆ Opinion: We’re going in the wrong direction on online harassment
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-04 | by ( Opinion Kara Alaimo | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

CNN —Last week, the Supreme Court issued a ruling that makes it harder to hold people responsible for harassment. So it’s clearly urgent for institutions to strike the right balance in protecting the free speech of critics without allowing them to chill the free speech of those with whom they disagree. It sends a symbolic message that protecting freedom of speech requires tolerating lower-level harassment speech, which often intimidates speakers into silencing themselves. Free speech is crucial to academic discourse, but something is wrong with a statement of “free speech” that allows courses to be censored due to online harassment of their instructors. The Supreme Court’s newly declared permissiveness toward online harassment is only likely to embolden more of it.

Persons: Kara Alaimo, Coles Whalen, ” Kara Alaimo, Rebecca Journey, Daniel Schmidt, Schmidt, Journey, ” Schmidt, “, — Organizations: Fairleigh Dickinson University, Women, Press, CNN, University of Chicago, ”, Twitter, University, The New York Times, University of Waterloo, Facebook, Court Locations: Chicago, Canada

He was found guilty in a 2017 trial of stalking Whalen and sentenced to 4-1/2 years in prison as he pursued his First Amendment appeal. The Colorado stalking law did not require proof of a speaker's subjective intent to intimidate. Whalen has described the messages from Counterman, which came to her over a two-year span beginning in 2014, as life-threatening and life-altering. Among Counterman's communications to Whalen were messages that read: "Was that you in the white Jeep?" His appeal was rejected by the Colorado Court of Appeals.

Persons: Elena Kagan, Billy Counterman's, Coles Whalen, Kagan, John Elwood, Elwood, Counterman, messaged Whalen, Whalen, Joe Biden's, John Kruzel, Will Dunham Organizations: U.S, Supreme, Counterman, Facebook, Colorado, of Appeals, Thomson Locations: Colorado, Denver, Colorado's

☆ Supreme Court Debates Free-Speech Defense in Cyberstalker Case
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Jess Bravin | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Singer-songwriter Coles Whalen performed for friends and family at an undisclosed location in March. Photo: Thomas Simonetti/The Washington Post/Getty ImagesWASHINGTON—Supreme Court justices on Wednesday questioned whether a Colorado stalking law violates the First Amendment because defendants can be convicted even if they didn’t intend to threaten victims with physical violence. The case was a textbook example of cyberstalking. Billy Counterman became obsessed with a Denver singer-songwriter, Coles Whalen, and in 2014 began texting her through Facebook Messenger, under the delusion that they were in a romantic relationship. The hundreds of messages, which kept coming even after she blocked Mr. Counterman and obtained a restraining order against him, were terrifying and drove her from performing in public, Ms. Whalen said.

WASHINGTON, April 19 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday grappled with a convicted stalker's claim that thousands of unwanted Facebook messages he sent to a female musician in Colorado were protected speech in a case testing the limits of the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment safeguards. Rather, Counterman was convicted based on a showing that his messages would cause a "reasonable person" serious distress, a so-called objective legal standard. Counterman, citing mental illness and delusions, argued his statements were never intended to be threatening and were thus protected speech. The First Amendment prohibits the government from enacting laws "abridging the freedom of speech," but the U.S. Supreme Court has decided that the provision does not protect true threats. His appeal was rejected by the Colorado Court of Appeals.

☆ Supreme Court takes up convicted stalker’s plea to decide what constitutes a 'true threat'
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Lawrencehurley_Pic.Jpg | Lawrence Hurley | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to decide what kind of conduct constitutes a “true threat” that can be prosecuted as a criminal offense in a case brought by a Colorado man who repeatedly sent abusive messages to a local musician. If such messages are not true threats, they are deemed protected speech under the Constitution's First Amendment. Counterman's lawyers are asking the court to limit the definition of a true threat to situations in which the defendant intended to threaten the person. In Counterman’s case, prosecutors focused on messages he sent to Whalen on Facebook for two years starting in 2014. The conviction was upheld on appeal, prompting him to ask the Supreme Court to intervene.

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