Social Networking Prohibition for Sex Offenders Facially Unconstitutional

North Carolina’s ban on accessing commercial social networking sites by sex offenders is unconstitutional on its face, the court of appeals held this morning in State v. Packingham. Under G.S. 14-202.5, it is (was?) a Class I felony for any registered sex offender to access a commercial social networking web site where the offender knows that the site permits children to join. The law defines commercial social networking Web site broadly to include any site that: Derives revenue, through membership fees, advertising, or other sources; Facilitates social introduction between two or more persons for friendship, meetings, or information exchanges; Allows users to create Web pages or personal profiles that may be accessed by others; and Provides mechanisms for users to communicate with one another. G.S. 14-202.5(b). The definition excludes sites that provide only one discrete service (photo-sharing, email, instant message, or chat), and sites whose primary purpose is to facilitate commercial transactions involving goods or services. G.S. 14-202.5(c). Registrant Lester Packingham was found to be using Facebook under a pseudonym and charged with a violation of G.S. 14-202.5. A jury found him guilty. On appeal, he argued that the statute violated his First and Fourteenth Amendment rights to free speech, expression, association, assembly, and press. He also argued that the law was impermissibly overbroad and vague in violation of due process. The court of appeals agreed on both fronts. Applying intermediate scrutiny—the proper level of review for a content-neutral restriction on expressive activity—the court considered whether the law was narrowly tailored [...]