SAM 6050: Legal Aspects of Sport

Matt Cox

Freedom of Speech &

Social Media

@coxmt90: 11 days till graduation #graduation #nomoreschool

Facebook has been around since 2004Twitter has been around since 2006Over 974 million existing Twitter accounts*

37 percent of twitter users are between the ages of 18 and 25. (Duggan, Ellison, Lampe, Lenhart, & Madden, 2015)

Facebook claims 1.23 billion monthly active users*

History of Social Media

*(Sherman, 2014)

High schools are using Twitter to give their athletes recognition, in-game updates or final scores.

Good Tweets

Western Kentucky University suspended star running back Antonio Andrews after he tweeted critical comments about the team’s fans. (Antonio Andrews Barred for Twitter Post, 2011)

Sexually graphic and racially insensitive tweets led to high school cornerback Yuri Wright being expelled from his private school and losing a Michigan football scholarship offer. (Woods, 2012)

Bad Tweets College Students

Harper v. Scappoose (OR) School District Social Media Policy

Rosario v. Clark County School District Profanity filled tweets about his coach and

school administratorsPrivacy Rights

Kowalski v. Berkeley County Schools Internet bullying

High School Cases

First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution "Congress shall make no law … abridging the

freedom of speech.” Judiciary has struggled to define speech and

expression and the extent to which freedom of speech should be protected "The most stringent protection of free speech

would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theater and causing a panic” Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr

Freedom of Speech

Freedom of Speech is a constitutional right, and applies if there is a state actor involved. a person who is acting on behalf of a

governmental body include public school districts, city and county

governments, police officers, and municipal recreation depts.

Freedom of Speech

Tinker v. Des Moines Independent School District, 1969(a) substantial disruption of the school environment(b) an invasion of the rights of others.

Bethel School District v. Fraser, 1986 "vulgar" speech

Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier, 1988 "educators do not offend the First Amendment by

exercising editorial control over the style and content of student speech in school-sponsored expressive activities so long as their actions are reasonably related to legitimate pedagogical concerns”

Free Speech Rights of Students in a Public Schools

Harper v. Scappoose (OR) School District Settled because policy to broad

Rosario v. Clark County School District Proving Off Campus and Disruption in the class roomPrivacy of Cyberspace

Kowalski v. Berkeley County Schools Not a school related activityPrivate out-of-school speech

Relevant Legal Cases

Multiple public Facebook posts where he threatened local law enforcement, his estranged wife, an FBI agent, and a kindergarten class.

whether conviction of threatening another person under 18 requires proof of the defendant's subjective intent to threaten

would “reasonable person” regard the statement as threatening

Elonis v. United States

(Vara, 2014).

State Actor – Public and Private Nature of students speech - influence on

the school environment Social Media Policy- a precisely crafted,

narrowly written policy that imposes sanctions for social media postings

Privacy on CyberspaceDirect threat to the safety of the students

Legal Opinion

"Respectable Use Policy"

Lower court rulings have varied widely, and the Supreme Court has declined three times this term to review similar student off-campus speech

Very young in our legal system

Legal Opinion

About Twitter, Inc. | About. (2015). Retrieved April 20, 2015, from https://about.twitter.com/company Antonio Andrews barred for Twitter post. (2011, October 10). Retrieved April 18, 2015, from http://espn.go.com/college-

football/story/_/id/7085727/western-kentucky-hilltoppers-suspend-antonio-andrews-comments-twitter  Bethel School District. No. 403 v. Fraser, (1986),  Broussard v. School Board of the City of Norfolk, (1992), Costa-Lima, B. (2014, June 20). Oregon school district settles lawsuit over dance team's controversial social media policy.

Retrieved April 24, 2015, from http://www.splc.org/article/2014/06/oregon-school-district-settles-lawsuit-over-dance-teams-controversial-social-media-policy

 Duggan, M., Ellison, N. B., Lampe, C., Lenhart, A., & Madden, M. (2015, January 09). Demographics of Key Social Networking Platforms. Retrieved April 21, 2015, from http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/01/09/demographics-of-key-social-networking-platforms-2/

 Elonis v. United States (2014),  Green, L. (2015, January 8). 2014 Sports Law Year-in-Review. Retrieved April 24, 2015, from

https://www.nfhs.org/articles/2014-sports-law-year-in-review/  Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier, (1988),  Schenck v. United States, (1919),  Shaukat, I. O. (2008). Internet Bullying Not Protected by the First Amendment. Retrieved April 24, 2014, from

http://www.mddefensecounsel.org/cases/kowalski.html  Sherman, E. (2014, April 14). Many Twitter users don't tweet, finds report. Retrieved April 20, 2015, from

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/many-twitter-users-dont-tweet-finds-report/  State actor. (2015). Retrieved April 25, 2015, from http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/State+actor  Tinker v. Des Moines Independent School District, 1969  Vara, V. (2014, December 03). Elonis v. United States and the Nuances of Threats on Facebook - The New Yorker. Retrieved

April 25, 2015, from http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/nuances-threat-facebook  Von Zeipel, E. B. (2013, September 10). Nevada District Court Finds No Reasonable Expectation of Privacy in Private Twitter

Posts. Retrieved April 24, 2015, from http://www.tradesecretslaw.com/2013/09/articles/social-media-2/nevada-district-court-finds-no-reasonable-expectation-of-privacy-in-public-twitter-posts/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A%2BTradingSecrets%2B%28Trading%2BSecrets%29

 Woods, S. (2012, January 2). Wright or wrong, tweets cost HS football player a college Scholorships. Retrieved April 18, 2015, from http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/high-school/yuri-wright-expelled-don-bosco-prep-school-loses-football-scholarship-michigan-racially-sexually-graphic-twitter-posts-article-1.1009556

 Zhao, E. (2012, April 3). Austin Carroll, Indiana Student Expelled For Profane Tweet, Thrust Into National Free-Speech Debate. Retrieved April 24, 2015, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/03/students-profane-tweet-st_n_1400695.html

References