- Court: United States Supreme Court
- Area(s) of Law: First Amendment
- Date Filed: June 27, 2023
- Case #: No. 22-138
- Judge(s)/Court Below: KAGAN, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which ROBERTS, C. J., and ALITO, KAVANAUGH, and JACKSON, JJ., joined. SOTOMAYOR, J., filed an opinion concurring in part and concurring in the judgment, in which GORSUCH, J., joined as to Parts I, II, III–A, and III–B. THOMAS, J., filed a dissenting opinion. BARRETT, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which THOMAS, J., joined.
- Full Text Opinion
Petitioner sent hundreds of Facebook messages to a singer, and some messages threatened her life. Petitioner was convicted under Colo. Rev. Stat. §18-3-602(1)(c) (2022). Petitioner argued that he was protected by the First Amendment because his messages were not “true threats.” The trial court reviewed the evidence through a reasonable person standard and found that the messages did constitute “true threats.” The Colorado Court of Appeals affirmed, and the Colorado Supreme court denied review. The Court held the “State must prove in true-threats cases that the defendant had some understanding of his statements’ threatening nature… a recklessness standard is enough.” The Court reasoned a threat depends on what it conveys to the listener, but the First Amendment still demands a subjective mental state requirement to protect some true threats to avoid a chilling effect on speech. The Court found that a reckless standard “offers ‘enough breathing space for protected speech,’ without sacrificing to many of the benefits of enforcing laws against true threats.” Accordingly, the Court vacated the Colorado Court of Appeals judgement and remanded the case to apply the standard. VACATED and REMANDED.