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The Supreme Court on Tuesday overturned the conviction of an online stalker from Colorado, tightening the standard by which threats made on social media can be punished as crimes.

Justice Elena Kagan, writing for a 7-2 majority, said the "the First Amendment still requires proof that the defendant had some subjective understanding of the threatening nature of his statements."

In 2016, Colorado prosecuted the plaintiff, Billy Raymond Counterman, winning a state court conviction by showing that hundreds of Facebook messages Counterman sent to a female singer-songwriter were objectively threatening and received that way by the victim.

He served 4½ years behind bars, even though he has always maintained that he never intended to threaten the musician, Coles Whalen.

"The state must show that the defendant consciously disregarded a substantial risk that his communications would be viewed as thre