Last week, the state supreme court unanimously ruled that a provision of North Carolina’s cyberbullying statute, G.S. 14-458.1, “violates the First Amendment.” The case is State v. Bishop, and the opinion is here. I previously wrote here about the court of appeals ruling upholding the statute. This post summarizes the case and discusses the new opinion. Facts. Here’s what I wrote before, based on the opinion of the court of appeals: The defendant and the victim were students at the same high school. The defendant posted several comments on Facebook about the victim, including a post calling him “homosexual”; a comment referring to a message the victim had sent to another student on Facebook as “excessively homoerotic in nature”; a statement, in response to another student’s suggestion that they “kick [the victim’s] ass” that the defendant “never got the chance to slap [the victim] down before Christmas break”; and crude comments about the victim’s genitals. The victim became distraught as a result of these and other comments, and his mother contacted law enforcement. The defendant acknowledged making the comments at issue. The supreme court’s opinion summarizes the facts somewhat differently, generally portraying the online activity as more of a back-and-forth. For example, it noted that there were multiple exchanges between the defendant and the complainant that “included comments and accusations about each other’s sexual proclivities, along with name-calling and insults.” Procedural history. The defendant was charged with cyberbullying under G.S. 14-458.1(a)(1)(d). He was convicted in district court and again in superior [...]
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