16
prompting incessant late-night telephone calls to their home by
way of false representations, by overtly and aggressively
threatening to misuse their personal identifying information,
and by falsely accusing Jim of a serious crime.
Where the sole
purpose of the defendants' speech was to further their endeavor
to intentionally harass the Lyonses, such speech is not
protected by the First Amendment.
"The [F]irst [A]mendment does
not provide a defense to a criminal charge simply because the
actor uses words to carry out his illegal purpose."
United
States v. Barnett, 667 F.2d 835, 842 (9th Cir. 1982).
In this respect, we are guided by the reasoning of the
United States Supreme Court and several circuit courts of the
United States Court of Appeals.
In Giboney, 336 U.S. at 498,
cited with approval in United States v. Stevens, 559 U.S. 460,
468-469 (2010), the United States Supreme Court held that speech
or writing used as an integral part of conduct in violation of a
valid criminal statute is not protected by the First Amendment.
Following the holding in Giboney, in Sayer, the United States
Court of Appeals for the First Circuit held that the defendant's
posting of fictitious Craigslist advertisements to induce
anonymous third parties seeking casual sexual encounters to
harass the victim amounted to unprotected speech integral to the
criminal conduct proscribed by the Federal cyberstalking
Sélectionner le paragraphe cible3
Se connecter à un paragraphe
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Ajouter à la table des matières