Law Commons^™

Long Live The King: United States V. Bagdasarian And The Subjective-Intent Standard For Presidential "True-Threat" Jurisprudence, Kyle A. Mabe

Golden Gate University Law Review

This Note argues that the Ninth Circuit found the proper balance between protecting speech and the President by interpreting the true-threats doctrine and the construction of presidential-threat statutes to require a subjective intent to threaten, in addition to one of the traditional objective standards for true threats. The application of a solely objective standard to threats against the President leads to unsettling results that punish speech without need. Harmless but misguided individuals have been held criminally responsible for ludicrous statements based on the sensitivities of the fabled “reasonable person,” regardless of the speakers’ actual motivations for their statements. More importantly, …