Adding to the conflicted legal views over true threats was the 2019 refusal by the justices to consider an appeal by Jamal Knox, a Pittsburgh rap music artist convicted over lyrics in a song ...

"A 'true threat' standard that considers the speaker's intent is necessary to avoid criminalizing inevitable misunderstandings," he wrote in his brief.

Federal courts applied Supreme Court precedent from an earlier decision, concluding that he did not have a 1st Amendment right to make a “true threat,” or one that a reasonable person would ...