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Thursday, March 18, 2010

Courts - 3rd Circuit declines to address whether "sexting" was protected by free speech law

Updating this ILB entry from March 27, 2009, which was headed "Students Sue Prosecutor in Cellphone Photos Case," Nathan Gorenstein of the Philadelphia Inquirer reported yesterday on the same case, in a story that begins:

A federal appeals court in will not decide whether "sexting" is pornography in the case of three Pennsylvania teenagers facing criminal charges for appearing in cell phone photographs partly clothed.

The court today did rule that the former district attorney in Wyoming County, George Skumanick Jr., was wrong when he threatened to prosecute a teen because she refused to attend his "education" class.

The case before the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia gained national attention earlier this year because it was, potentially, the first case to address whether "sexting" was protected by free speech law.

While the court in January heard arguments on the First Amendment issued, "We decline to consider it" the three-judge panel wrote in the 35-page decision released.

The controversy started in October, 2008, when officials in the Tunkhannock School District, north of Scranton, found photos of nude and semi-nude teenage girls on male students cell phones.

Skumanick was called in, an investigation was launched, and at a meeting of students' parents, he said any student who did not attend an "education program" of his design would face child pornography charges.

Three parents sued, and obtained an injunction from U.S. District Court prohibiting filing of criminal charges.

Here is a somewhat clearer story, from Michael Rubinkam of the AP.

Here is a link to the 35-page 3rd Circuit opinion in Miller v. Mitchell.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on March 18, 2010 01:48 PM
Posted to Courts in general