Elonis v. United States
United States Supreme Court
135 S. Ct. 2001 (2015)
Elonis (defendant) was convicted of making interstate threats under 18 U.S.C. Section 875(c), a statute containing no express mens rea requirement, based on a jury instruction directing jurors to assess whether a reasonable person would view his violent online posts about his estranged wife as threatening, rather than whether Elonis himself intended or was aware his words would be understood as threats; the court of appeals affirmed, holding the statute required only intent to communicate the words themselves, not intent to threaten.
Whether criminal statutes generally include a requirement that a person is aware that he or she is committing a crime, even if the statute does not explicitly contain such a mens rea requirement.