Lester Gerard Packingham Jr. celebrated the dismissal of a traffic ticket by posting “G-d is Good” on Facebook. He was then arrested and convicted of a felony for this post—North Carolina law prohibits registered sex offenders to access social media sites open to children. Now, the justices of the Supreme Court will determine whether this North Carolina law violates the First Amendment.
North Carolina law makes it a felony for any person on the State Sex Offender and Public Protection Registry to “access” any “commercial networking website” that he knows does not restrict membership to adults. Packingham was charged with a felony for violating the statute by accessing Facebook. A jury convicted Packingham, but the North Carolina Court of Appeals overturned his conviction, holding that the statute violates the First Amendment.
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