I don’t usually side with the corporations, but there is something about this story that suggest criminality and culpability. But the 9th Circuit is well-known for its interesting decisions.  [1] David Kravetz at Wired has the story.

You send letters threatening a massacre at the Super Bowl.  You actually get in your vehicle with an assault weapon and ammunition and head to the Super Bowl, then you change your mind and head home.  The 9th following the letter of the law disagrees with the Citizens United Supreme Court decision and turns this guy loose because the organizations receiving the letters were not persons.

I think this decision may be more about Citizens United than it is about the 2008 Super Bowl.

[2] clipped from [3] www.wired.com Court: Death Threats Addressed to Corporations Aren’t Illegal The case concerned Kurt William Havelock, who drove to the Super Bowl in Glendale, Arizona, with a newly purchased assault rifle and dozens of rounds of ammunition with the intent to kill. “It will be swift and bloody,” he wrote media outlets in packages mailed a half hour before he got cold feet and abandoned his plan. “I will sacrifice your children upon the altar of your excess.” An Arizona man who plotted a massacre outside the 2008 Super Bowl had his conviction overturned Monday by a federal appeals court because his snailmailed death threats went to no specific targets. [4]