Press "Enter" to skip to content

House Unanimously Passes Legislation to Update Washington’s Cyber Harassment Law

Advertisement

press releaseThe state House of Representatives has unanimously passed legislation to update Washington’s cyber harassment law less than two weeks after a federal district court judge found the state’s existing law unconstitutional.

House Bill 2129, sponsored by 31st District State Rep. Drew Stokesbary, would no longer criminalize those constitutionally-protected categories of speech but would give more tools to law enforcement to prosecute cyber harassment. For example, under the proposed legislation, cyber harassment could be charged as a felony if the defendant had previously been convicted of harassing the victim, their family, or their household in the past.

Advertisement
WA State Representative, Drew Stokesbary, Republican Representative, Stokesbary, Auburn Representative
WA State Representative Drew Stokesbary (R-Auburn)

“Washington state led the nation in anti-cyberstalking legislation fifteen years ago. But with a federal judge’s recent ruling it was critical we get an enforceable law in place quickly,” said Stokesbary, R-Auburn. “I am thankful to my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for expediting this bill through the legislative process in order to address the judge’s decision and put a new cyber harassment bill in place.”

In his ruling, Judge Ronald B. Leighton said the state’s cyberstalking law was an unconstitutional restriction of free speech rights. His injunction order noted the Supreme Court has only permitted government regulation of narrow categories of speech, such as obscenity, defamation, incitement, and threats. He concluded that Washington’s existing cyberstalking law violated the First Amendment because it criminalized speech outside of these categories, such as statements that were merely “embarrassing” to their subject or that were made anonymously or repetitively.

The judge issued an injunction on Friday, Feb. 22. Stokesbary managed to draft a bill and get it before the House Appropriations Committee, where it passed unanimously, before the Thursday, Feb. 28 fiscal committee cutoff deadline.

The bill now goes to the Senate for consideration.

Advertisement

The above is a press release from the office of Rep. Drew Stokesbary.  The Auburn Examiner has not independently verified its contents.

Advertisement
More from PoliticsMore posts in Politics »
Advertisement

Be First to Comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

WP2Social Auto Publish Powered By : XYZScripts.com