California State University Fresno Brandenburg vs Ohio Legal Case Questions

Answer questions in number order. No minimum or maximum, as long as you answer the questions

Brief Brandenburg v. Ohio. Remember that when you brief cases, you answer the following four questions, and then any additional question(s) presented for each assignment.

(1) What communication(s) led to the defendant being arrested or otherwise sanctioned?

(2)Who prevailed (the government or the communicator?)

(3)What reasoning did the Court use to support its decision? In other words, what rule did the Court use to decide the case and how did they apply the rule to the communication at issue?

(4)Do you agree or disagree with the Court’s decision? Briefly explain why.

(5)Anthony Elonis’s wife left him, taking their two young children. After she left, Elonis began posting hip hop lyrics he had written, adopting the name “Tone Dougie.” He posted the following lyrics on Facebook:

“Hi, I’m Tone Elonis.

Did you know it’s illegal for me to say I want to kill my wife?

Now it was okay for me to say it right then because I was just telling

you that it’s illegal for me to say I want to kill my wife …

Um, but what’s interesting is that it’s very illegal to say I really, really

think someone out there should kill my wife …

But not illegal to say with a mortar launcher.

Because that’s its own sentence …

I also found out that it’s incredibly illegal, extremely illegal to go on

Facebook and say something like the best way to fire a mortar

launcher at her house would be from the cornfield behind it

because of easy access to a getaway road and you’d have a

clear line of sight through the sun room …

Yet even more illegal to show an illustrated diagram.” [Elonis then

posted an accurate diagram of his ex-wife’s house]

Based on the readings about true threats (pp. 82-84), would

Elonis’s “rap lyrics” be protected by the First Amendment?