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Rap Music Plays Role in First Amendment Case

BY Tony Mauro
October 02, 2014

The musical tastes of several U.S. Supreme Court justices run toward opera. But as the start of its fall term approached, the court was getting an intense education in another genre: the rhythmic, slangy ' sometimes violent ' poetry of rap music.

The modern musicology lesson plays a key part in Elonis v. U.S., 13-983, which is set for argument before the high court on December 1. The case asks whether the online posting of threatening language like that found in some rap lyrics violates a federal law against transmitting “any threat to injure the person of another” across state lines.

Anthony Elonis of Pennsylvania began posting angry prose on Facebook in 2010 after his wife left him. He often stated his messages were in jest, and sometimes they sounded as much like legal analysis as threats. “Did you know that it's illegal to say I want to kill my wife?” he wrote.

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