The case of an Eastpointe teen accused of allegedly threatening a shooting at Michigan State University has advanced to the trial court following a recent Michigan Supreme Court decision.

Hope Duncan, 18, who is suspended from MSU, was ordered Friday to face charges of false report or threat of terrorism and using a computer to commit a crime in Ingham County Circuit Court by Judge Lisa Babcock of 54B District Court in East Lansing following a March preliminary examination. Each charge is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

Babcock had asked for legal briefs to be filed in the case following the end of the court hearing but ruled Friday without the briefs following the Michigan Supreme Court’s March 28 decision to vacate a February state Court of Appeals ruling that ruled the terrorism-threat charge is unconstitutional. The high court ordered the appeals court to reconsider its ruling and examine the First Amendment and related issues in the Wayne County case.

Duncan was arrested at her campus residence within an hour of her 2 p.m. Feb. 26 anonymous post on MSU Class of ‘28 Snapchat, “There’s going to be another shooting at michigan state. I’m so glad, this school definitely deserves it and everyone here should die.”

The comment was made within two weeks of the anniversary of the 2023 campus shooting that killed three students and injured five.

At the March court hearing, Duncan told police, “I just wanted attention. I’m so lonely.”

Her attorney, Mike Nichols, said Wednesday his client was having difficulty adjusting to college in her freshman year “along with anxiety that comes with growing up in our newly emergent digital age.”

“This is a kid who has been struggling, and this has only made it worse,” Nichols said.

Duncan should not have been charged because the law was vacated at the time, Nichols contended, and even if it was in effect, her comments do not rise to the level of a threat.

“It’s a prediction, it’s not a threat,” he said. “It’s not a warning, it’s a musing.”

He acknowledged the comments were inappropriate and added, “Hope needed help, not handcuffs.”

A date for Duncan’s first appearance in Ingham County Circuit Court has not been set. She is free on tether restrictions after posting bond, he said, and is working.

She wrote on her LinkedIn page she was studying political science in the College of Social Science at MSU.

In its decision, the Supreme Court told the appeals court to consider potential First Amendment protections; “the Constitutional-Doubt canon,” which “provides a way for the Court to avoid ruling on constitutional questions that are contentious or where the Court’s interpretation would meet with general, public disfavor,” according to constitutional.congress.gov; “whether it is appropriate to adopt a limiting construction of (the law) to remedy any remaining constitutional deficiency,” and, if so, what that should be; and whether a Wayne Circuit Court judge abused his or her its discretion by dismissing the case without prejudice last Feb. 24 while an application for interlocutory appeal was pending.

Michigan Attorney General Dana General filed a brief in the Supreme Court case in support of Wayne County Prosecutors Office in favor of upholding the existing law.

“The anti-terrorism law is a vital tool for holding accountable those who make serious threats in our state,” Nessel said. “While the case has been remanded for further consideration, I am hopeful that this decision brings us closer to correctly reaffirming the law’s constitutionality and preserving the ability of prosecutors across Michigan to protect public safety.”

The defendant in the Wayne County case was Michael Kvasnicka of Grosse Ile, who was charged with the anti-terrorism offense after sending a social media message to a Trenton Public Schools student in September 2023 threatening to “come to your school and shoot it up or blow it up like [C]olumbine,” a reference to a mass school shooting in 1999 in Colorado.