Supreme Court to Hear Facebook Free-Speech Case

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case regarding the free-speech rights of a man who was accused of posting threatening messages on Facebook. The man's lawyers argue that a law banning speech that would be deemed threatening by a reasonable person shouldn't apply to Facebook messages, which are intended for people who know the speaker personally, and thus, might be less likely to take off-color comments seriously. The case revolves around a man sentenced to nearly four years in federal prison for posting violent online rants against his estranged wife, law enforcement officials, and former co-workers. Experts predict that there are going to be more of these kinds of cases as people feel that they can get away with more incendiary speech on the Internet, in tweets and in texts.