Scotus argument today in CA3’s Facebook-threats case

The Supreme Court held argument today in a case from the Third Circuit. The case is Elonis v. United States, and the central issue is the standard for criminal liability for online threats.

Today’s argument transcript is here. My post on the Elonis cert grant is here. Some early coverage of the argument by Lyle Denniston on Scotusblog is here, Brett Kendall in the Wall Street Journal is here, and Richard Wolff in USA Today is here. Wolff predicted:

it seemed the most likely outcome would be to send the case back for a second trial, with instructions that jurors prove the despondent author either knew his words could cause fear or was reckless in posting them repeatedly.

Having recently been reversed both in Bond and in Carman, CA3’s Scotus cold streak may continue.