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Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Ind. Decisions - Even more on "MySpace Postings Are Free Speech"

The April 9th Court of Appeals opinion in A.B. v. State of Indiana (initial ILB entry here), is the subject of even more comment.

The Clovis News Journal, located in Clovis, New Mexico, delivers to readers in a number of New Mexico and Texas counties, and is part of Freedom Newspapers of New Mexico. From an editorial dated April 17 and titled "Speech once again free in cyberspace ":

An Indiana appellate court this month ruled, rightly in our view, that a verdict reached by a circuit court a year ago unconstitutionally violated a young girl’s freedom of speech.

In a time where many of our freedoms are being usurped in the name of national security, we must take the time to treasure these small victories because, often times, they pave the way for the larger victories down the road. * * *

The appeals court opinion said that because A.B. directed her comments, profane though they were, at the enforcement of a policy at a public school and at the state official, namely the principal, who was enforcing that policy, her comments were political in nature.

The court also found that the initial argument did not satisfy Indiana’s harassment test. The court did not observe any evidence that these statements inflicted any undue harm on the school’s principal.

The incident is another in a line of cases where a public official has tried to squash the voice of a student because the official believed the student’s statements to be inappropriate or uncouth.

However, there have been at least three Supreme Court cases that have afforded increased protection for student-initiated debate, according to the First Amendment Center.

One could argue MySpace constitutes a student-initiated forum of discussion and, therefore, is protected from censorship from public officials, such as a principal.

The Internet is a powerful vehicle of communication and debate and it should be kept free from the interference of government for the benefit of all, including for students who want to gripe about school policies.

The South Bend Tribune has a lengthy story by Jeff Parrott with the headline "Local accident detailed in blog: Man, 21, facing OWI-causing injury charge one of many youths whose posts could haunt them." The story quotes from statements on the youth's website, then writes:
Those words were typed onto a Web log, or blog, on Hoshaw's MySpace page, on Sept. 8. The site also contained pictures of him guzzling beers and partying with others while he attended Ball State University.

On his blog, he admits his blood-alcohol content at the time of the crash was twice the legal limit, despite not having been charged with a crime. Having gone straight to the hospital after the crash, he had yet to even be arrested.

Hoshaw declined to speak with a reporter. But what he apparently states about the crash in his blog is consistent with what he has said in a sworn civil court case deposition.

He is one of a growing number of teens and young adults who are posting potentially self-incriminating things on MySpace and other so-called social networking sites.

The report then ties in the Court of Appeals opinion in A.B. v. State of Indiana:
In another case last week, the Indiana Court of Appeals overturned a lower court's decision to place a girl on probation for posting an expletive-laden entry on MySpace criticizing her principal on school policy over body piercings. The appeals court ruled her posting was constitutionally protected political speech because it dealt with school policy.

Still, initially facing more serious charges before they were dropped, she found herself thrust into Putnam County's juvenile justice system over her Web words.

More than 100 million people, most between the ages of 14 and 24, now have MySpace pages. Experts say teens and young adults enjoy having a place, unconstrained by adults' rules, where they can express themselves, trade music and simply hang out.

But why aren't some youth more careful about what they post? * * *

As it turned out, authorities did not know about Hoshaw's MySpace page until learning about it from a Tribune reporter April 10 -- about a week after prosecutors charged Hoshaw in the case.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on April 18, 2007 08:23 AM
Posted to Ind. App.Ct. Decisions