Law & Technology Paper

Summary:
Purpose Statement
The purpose of this assignment is to examine more closely the often-complex relationship between First Amendment rights and new advances in technology-mediated communication. To this end, this paper will ask you to review recent case law and think critically about free speech in online contexts.
Instructions
The assignment is to write a 20002200-word paper on the Supreme Court case, Packingham v. North Carolina (2017) and to bring the case into conversation with articles from peer-reviewed law journals. You will provide background information (the context for North Carolinas ban on sex offenders social media use and Packinghams lawsuit), summarize the findings by the U.S. Supreme Court (you dont need to examine the rulings by the various lower courts), and make connections to academic articles to discuss key issues related to social media and free speech. PDFs of the case and relevant journal articles are provided on Moodle. Here is the APA citation for these sources:
Packingham v. North Carolina, 528 U.S. ___ (2017)
Harding, A. N. (2021). Unfriending Tinker: The Third Circuit holds schools cannot regulate off-campus social media speech. Villanova Law Review, 66(1), 219248.
Hooker, M. P. (2019). Censorship, free speech & Facebook: Applying the First Amendment to social media platforms via the public function exception. Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts, 15(1), 3673.
Paper structure
To have a well-organized paper, I encourage you to use subheadings to clearly identify each section of your paper. You need to address the following points in your paper.
What was the background of the case? Review the North Carolina statute, Packinghams complaint, and the legal tensions at the heart of this case.
What was the final Supreme Court verdict? What were the key points of the decision? How did the Supreme Court Justices support their legal reasoning/argumentation?
Now think about free speech and social media beyond this case. Based on the journal articles, discuss what youve learned about the following key issues:
Censorship on social media (Who is allowed to censor? When do First Amendment protections apply?)
Students First Amendment rights and social media (Who can regulate students online speech? When and under what circumstances?)
The public function exception (What is it? Why does it matter in the context of free speech online?)
The right to access social media (Why is it important for individuals to be able to access social media? What is at stake with the access issue?)
Conclusion (final reflections and thoughts)

Citations
Include appropriate in-text citations as well as a reference page in APA format.
Submission and grading information
Your paper is due by 06/17 Thursday 11:59 pm. Submit your assignment on Moodle using Turn-It-In. This class has a zero-tolerance policy for plagiarism, and as per the syllabus, any student who presents the work of others as his/her own, or presents work that was assigned in another course, will receive a 0 on this assignment and will automatically fail the course. Grades will be based on, in this order:
Accuracy of information (is it clear you understood what you read?)
Thoroughness (inclusion of all necessary elements)
Ability to explain in your own words
Clarity spelling, grammar, punctuation

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