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* Anthony Douglass Elonis's rap name was Tone-Dougie
* Lived in Fleetwood, Pennsylvania
* Elonis's ex-wife moved 30 miles away from Fleetwood to avoid physical confrontation with him
*After he lost his wife, kids, and job Anthony Douglas Elonis went onto social media to write posts that were interpreted as threats.
*This all began when he was fired from his job and wrote "Y’all think it’s too dark and foggy to secure your facility from a man as mad as me? You see, even without a paycheck, I’m still the main attraction.".
*He went on to continue writing these posts but now turned the focus on his soon to be ex wife. Elonis posted an adaptation to a satirical sketch him and his wife used to watched called "It's Illegal to Say 'I Want to Kill the President.'". Instead he substituted the President with his wife. Which ultimately left his wife feeling threatened.
*The state court after seeing this issued a restraining order on Elonis for three years.
*Elonis then went on to write posts that threatened law enforcement officers and elementary schools that would be his third and fourth count of indictment.
*Count five happened when he threatened an FBI agent when she came to question him.
*Elonis denied that any of these posts were a threat and that he was only a rapper using his freedom of speech to make raps.
*Used social media platform, Facebook, to express his feelings "artistically"
*Wrote in comments that he did not intend to physically harm anyone
*His "art" was taken as a threat against his ex-wife, local police, coworkers, an FBI agent, and an elementary school
*He was an aspiring rap artist expressing his emotions through music
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* Mr. Elonis was posted threats on Facebook to multiple people
* Motion to dismiss the case had been denied
* Mr. Elonis's threats were harmful because it instilled fear in the people/group of people that were mentioned in his "raps"
Does a conviction of threatening another person require proof of the subjective intent to threaten?
8-1 majority vote
The US supreme court concluded that the law requires proof of the defendant's intent to threaten, not negligence or a reasonable listener test.
*Date of birth unable to be found on the internet.
*Married for seven years until his wife left him
and took their kids with her.
*Also lost his job at the amusement park. He lost
his job by posing with someone with a knife at their
throat with the caption "I wish.".
*While he was going through divorce he began
posting on Facebook about his wife.
Prosecutors did not have enough evidence to prove his intent
The First Amendment prohibits the following:
However, the First Amendment does prohibit:
Elonis Conviction was overthrown
Changes the way social media and free speech work together
The court revised 18 U.S.C. § 875(c)
did not have mens rea
Changes the way threats through communication are charged or not