Unrelated To Achieving Its Purported Goal

Updated at 10:49 AM today

North Carolina appeals court strikes social media ban for sex offenders

"The North Carolina Court of Appeals on Tuesday struck down North Carolina's ban on registered sex offenders using social media sites like Facebook and Twitter.

The court said the ban in N.C. General Statute 14-202.5 "is not narrowly tailored, is vague, and fails to target the "evil" it is intended to rectify."

"The statute violates the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech, and it is unconstitutional on its face and as applied. Accordingly, we vacate the trial court's judgment," wrote the court.

The ruling centered around a Durham case in which LGP appealed his felony conviction for accessing a commercial networking site last year. According to the trial records, the Durham Police Department was looking at evidence that registered sex offenders were using the websites MySpace and Facebook, and an officer recognized P's photo on Facebook.

The North Carolina law says registered sex offenders may not use commercial social media sites if they know the site "permits minor children to become members or to create or maintain personal Web pages."

But in its ruling, the appeals court said the law "arbitrarily burdens all registered sex offenders by preventing a wide range of communication and expressive activity unrelated to achieving its purported goal [of preventing contact with children.]""

http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=news/local&id=9212242

http://congress-courts-legislation.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/north-carolina-appeals-court-strikes.html

*****

State v P

http://sexoffender-decisions.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/state-v-packingham.html

http://appellate.nccourts.org/opinions/?c=2&pdf=MjAxMy8xMi0xMjg3LTEucGRm