Watts v. United States
United States Supreme Court
394 U.S. 705 (1969)
Relevant factsFree
At an anti-war rally protesting police brutality and the Vietnam draft, recently drafted Watts (defendant) declared he would not go to war and that if the military ever put a gun in his hands, the first person he would shoot was the president; a jury convicted him of willfully threatening the president, and he appealed his conviction as a First Amendment violation.
IssueFree
Whether the First Amendment protects political hyperbole that includes a threatening statement directed at the president of the United States.