True Threats – Virginia v. Black is most comprehensive Supreme Court definition – 1st Amendment

An anti-Vietnam War protester, Robert Watts, was prosecuted and convicted for threatening President Lyndon B. Johnson after he said at an anti-war rally, "If they ever make me carry a rifle, the first man I want to get in my sights in L.B.J." The case went to the Supreme Court, which said that Watts' remark was the sort of "political hyperbole" that did not constitute a true threat, and ruled the statute that criminalized threats against the president as unconstitutional on its face. Later, courts used the "Watts factors" in true-threat analysis, considering the context of the threat, the conditional nature and reaction of the listeners. The Watts case came during a time of multiple marches and protests against the war, as the one shown here in Washington D.C. in October 1967 where a sign reads "GET THE HELLicopters OUT OF VIETNAM." (Photo, public domain via Wikimedia Commons)

True Threats – Virginia v. Black is most comprehensive Supreme Court definition By Kevin Francis O’Neill (Updated June 2017 by David L. Hudson Jr.) In legal parlance a true threat is a statement that is meant to frighten or intimidate one or more specified persons into believing that they will be seriously harmed by the … Continue reading True Threats – Virginia v. Black is most comprehensive Supreme Court definition – 1st Amendment

Good Shepherd News - Fastest Growing Religious, Free Speech & Political Content