Packingham v. North Carolina

Background

Lester Packingham, a registered sex offender after a conviction for sex with a minor, posted on Facebook after a traffic ticket was dismissed and was later charged under a North Carolina law that made it a felony for registered sex offenders to access many commercial social networking sites. The statute applied to roughly 20,000 people in the State and had produced over 1,000 prosecutions. A state appeals court struck the law down, the North Carolina Supreme Court upheld it, and the U.S. Supreme Court granted review.

Reasoning

The Court addressed whether the broad ban on visiting social media sites is allowed under the Free Speech Clause as applied to the States. The majority said the Internet—and social media in particular—is a modern public forum where people speak, listen, and learn. Even assuming the law was content neutral and the State has a compelling interest in protecting children, the statute was not narrowly tailored and swept too broadly. The opinion noted the law could reach many everyday sites (for example, shopping, news, or health sites) and thus burdens substantially more speech than necessary. The Court reversed and remanded, while saying States may still enact more specific, narrowly targeted laws against contact with minors or other unlawful conduct.

Real world impact

The ruling invalidates North Carolina’s wide ban and restores registered sex offenders’ access to the covered social media and similar websites in the State while requiring governments to use narrower tools to protect children. The decision is not a rule about every possible online restriction; it leaves open more focused criminal laws that target specific harmful conduct.

Dissents or concurrances

Justice Alito, joined by the Chief Justice and Justice Thomas, agreed the law is unconstitutional but warned the Court’s broad language equating the Internet with public streets could unduly limit future state protections for children.