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Constitutional Law Keyed to Chemerinsky
Counterman v. Colorado
Citation:
600 U.S. 66 (2023)Facts
Between 2014 and 2016, Billy Raymond Counterman sent hundreds of unsolicited messages to a local Colorado musician over Facebook and other social media platforms. His messages became increasingly disturbing, including statements like “Die… Don’t need you,” references to seeing her in public places, and suggestions that she was hiding from him. The musician became fearful for her safety, canceled several performances, and eventually reported Counterman to law enforcement. Colorado prosecuted Counterman under its anti-stalking statute, which prohibits knowingly making repeated communications that would cause a reasonable person to suffer serious emotional distress. At trial, Counterman claimed he did not intend his messages to be threatening, but the court applied an objective standard and convicted him, sentencing him to 4.5 years in prison.
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