http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2 ... rules.html"A La Mesa man who posted racial epithets and a call to "shoot" Barack Obama on an Internet chat site was engaging in constitutionally protected free speech, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday in overturning his criminal conviction.
Walter Bagdasarian was found guilty two years ago of making threats against a major presidential candidate in comments he posted on a Yahoo.com financial website after 1 a.m. on Oct. 22, 2008, as Obama's impending victory in the race for the White House was becoming apparent. Bagdasarian told investigators he was drunk at the time.
A divided panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned that conviction Tuesday, saying Bagdasarian's comments were "particularly repugnant" because they endorsed violence but that a reasonable person wouldn't have taken them as a genuine threat.
The observation that Obama "will have a 50 cal in the head soon" and a call to "shoot the [racist slur]" weren't violations of the law under which Bagdasarian was convicted because the statute doesn't criminalize "predictions or exhortations to others to injure or kill the president," said the majority opinion written by Judge Stephen Reinhardt.
For the non-Americans out there, the US has federal courts and state courts. State court decisions only have applicability within a given state. The above was a "federal" case, which meant that the guy was arrested and went to trial in federal "district" court. Districts are basically regions of the country. Several districts are lumped together to form a "Circuit." And, once a person is convicted by the "district" court in a criminal case they have the right to appeal to the higher "Circuit" court of appeal. There are 11 "Circuits" throughout the US, and the above case was brought before the 9th Circuit, which covers all of the districts in the following states: Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Washington and California. (some states have only one "district", but a lot have multiple districts within the state, usually designated "eastern district of...." "western district of..." "southern district of...." and the like).
So, the 9th Circuit court of appeals reversed the conviction here citing a fundamental liberty, and that mere predictions or exhortations of violence are within protected speech. The 9th Circuit is generally reputed to be the most "liberal" and "judicially active" of the Circuits, most often chided by the right and lauded by the left in the United States.
