U.S. courts have traditionally been reluctant to become involved in internal disputes within a religious organization. These concerns are based on First Amendment prohibitions against interfering with a church’s or...more
An intra-congregational dispute over control of church bank accounts led the Wakefield Missionary Baptist Church to a schism that forced out a senior pastor, saw church doors locked, and resulted in competing factions...more
In March, the concept of nominal damages (often just a single dollar awarded to a plaintiff to represent a defendant’s liability in the absence of actual damages) took center stage at the highest courts of both the country...more
The U.S. Supreme Court has issued one of its first decisions addressing the relationship between the First Amendment and the Internet. In Packingham v. North Carolina, 582 U.S. ___ (June 19, 2017), the Court holds that a...more
The internet has become so essential to American public discourse that saying so is almost trite now. Members of Congress regularly use social media to engage with constituents. The President has turned Twitter into one of...more
Yesterday’s unanimous ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in Packingham v. North Carolina is one of the first decisions in which the Court has addressed broadly the relationship between the First Amendment and social media,...more
The Supreme Court of the United States has just agreed to the hear Packingham v. United States. The grant of certiorari reflects the increasing integration of cyberlaw with mainstream constitutional litigation. Packingham,...more
On February 9, 2012, Robert Bishop was arrested and charged with one count of cyberbullying under the North Carolina Cyberbullying statute, which states that it is “unlawful for any person to use a computer or computer...more
In State v. Bishop (June 10, 2016), the Supreme Court of North Carolina reversed a unanimous panel of the Court of Appeals and struck down the state’s cyberbullying statute, N.C.G.S. § 14-458.1 as unconstitutional....more