North Carolina Supreme Court Rejects 1st Amendment Challenge to Social Networking Ban for Sex Offenders

The North Carolina Supreme Court has rejected a 1st Amendment challenge to a provision of state law that forbids convicted sex offenders from accessing most commercial social networking websites, such as facebook.com. State v. Packingham, 2015 WL 6777114 (Nov. 6, 2015).

 

Lester Packingham, a convicted sex offender, established a facebook.com page using the name J.R. Gerrard. A Durham Police Department officer investigating whether any convicted sex offenders were on facebook.com recognized Packingham … <Read More>