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Wait…Did the SCOTUS Just Legalize Stalking?
According to a recent ruling from the United States Supreme Court (SCOTUS), stalking victims must prove they have legitimate reasons to feel threatened, and the accused stalker must be aware of the impact of his or her threatening behavior.
To muddy the waters even more, the author of the majority opinion was not one of the usual suspects — Justices Thomas, Alito, Roberts, Kavanaugh, Gorsuch, or Barrett — but liberal justice Elena Kagan. The usual suspects joined her, as did Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. Even the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) praised the ruling as a defense of free speech safeguards.
The decision originates with a case out of Colorado, Counterman v. Colorado, in which Billy Counterman was convicted in 2017 for sending years’ worth of repeated threatening messages to Denver singer-songwriter Coles Whalen’s Facebook account.
“You’re not being good for human relations. Die. Don’t need you,” was one.
“Was that you in the white Jeep?” was another.
Despite Whalen blocking Counterman’s messages, Counterman created new accounts and persisted with things like, “Staying in cyber life is going to kill you,” and “Seems like I’m being talked about more than I’m being talked to. This isn’t healthy.”
