United States Third Circuit

Defendant's convictions for making threatening communications, based on his posts on Facebook, are affirmed, where: 1) the true threats exception to speech protection under the First Amendment does not require a jury to find the defendant subjectively intended his statements to be understood as threats; 2) the proper standard for determining a true threat is when a reasonable speaker would foresee the statement would be interpreted as a threat, and therefore, the district court properly instructed the jury; and 3) a reasonable jury could find the statements to be true threats.

Appellate Information

• Decided 09/19/2013
• Published 09/19/2013

Judges

• SCIRICA

Court

• United States Third Circuit

Counsel