Criminal Harassment and the First Amendment 2025

Figures of speech

Can you be prosecuted for posting true, but harsh comments about another person online? Can a court bar you from speaking about a particular person in a blog post, on social media, or at a protest? In recent years, courts across the country have issued broad injunctions or enforced harassment laws against people for engaging in critical public speech.¹ Because not all offensive speech is unprotected speech, this trend raises critical First Amendment questions.

You talkin’ about me?

Criminal Harassment and the First Amendment explores recent case law and provides practical insights into the distinction between constitutionally unprotected harassment and speech that warrants protection, no matter how unpleasant it might be.

• Explore the categories of speech excluded from First Amendment protection and how they apply in harassment cases
• Analyze the current scope of criminal harassment laws
• Recognize the distinction between speech to a person and speech about a person, and why it matters
• Survey real cases where lower courts enjoined or punished speech that was found constitutionally protected on appeal
• Understand the procedural advantages of raising a First Amendment defense in harassment cases
• Review key considerations when drafting or challenging injunctions involving speech

Let’s talk it over

As courts are increasingly asked to draw boundaries between harassment and protected speech, the stakes for litigants and free expression are high. Attorneys must know how to approach the complex intersection of personal protection and public expression. Criminal Harassment and the First Amendment provides the insight you need to approach harassment-related cases with constitutional clarity.

¹ See Eugene Volokh, One-to-One Speech vs. One-to-Many Speech, Criminal Harassment Laws, and “Cyberstalking”, 107 Nw. U. L. Rev. 731 (2013).