Elonis v. United States

Decided June 1, 2015. John Glover Roberts Jr. delivered the opinion of the Court.

Docket 13-983 · 575 U.S. 723 (2015) · Cited 553 times

Holding

The Third Circuit's instruction, requiring only negligence with respect to the communication of a threat, is not suffcient to support a conviction under Section 875(c).

The Court’s statement of the holding, from the opinion’s syllabus. The syllabus is prepared by the Reporter of Decisions and is not part of the opinion of the Court — read the official opinion for authority.

How the Justices voted

Decided 8–1.

“Concurring” means agreeing with the outcome; any split shown is the Court’s judgment, not each Justice’s reasoning. Source: the Supreme Court Database (Spaeth et al.), Washington University.

Precedents cited

Supreme Court decisions this opinion relies on, ordered by how often it cites each. Cases in our collection link through; others are named.

• Hamling v. United States · 418 U.S. 87 (1974)
• Morissette v. United States · 342 U.S. 246 (1952)
• Rosen v. United States · 161 U.S. 29 (1896)
• United States v. X-Citement Video, Inc. · 513 U.S. 64 (1994)
• Virginia v. Black · 538 U.S. 343 (2003)
• Watts v. United States · 394 U.S. 705 (1969)
• Staples v. United States · 511 U.S. 600 (1994)
• Liparota v. United States · 471 U.S. 419 (1985)
• Carter v. United States · 530 U.S. 255 (2000)
• Posters 'N' Things, Ltd. v. United States · 511 U.S. 513 (1994)
• Farmer v. Brennan · 511 U.S. 825 (1994)
• New York Times Co. v. Sullivan · 376 U.S. 254 (1964)
• R. A. v. v. City of St. Paul · 505 U.S. 377 (1992)
• Garrison v. Louisiana · 379 U.S. 64 (1964)
• Cochran & Sayre v. United States · 157 U.S. 286 (1895)
• Neder v. United States · 527 U.S. 1 (1999)
• Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc. · 418 U.S. 323 (1974)
• Cantwell v. Connecticut · 310 U.S. 296 (1940)
• Roth v. United States · 354 U.S. 476 (1957)
• National Ass'n for the Advancement of Colored People v. Button · 371 U.S. 415 (1963)
• Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire · 315 U.S. 568 (1942)
• Russello v. United States · 464 U.S. 16 (1983)
• Cohen v. California · 403 U.S. 15 (1971)
• Tison v. Arizona · 481 U.S. 137 (1987)
• Cox v. Louisiana · 379 U.S. 536 (1965)
• United States v. Bailey · 444 U.S. 394 (1980)
• Smith v. California · 361 U.S. 147 (1959)
• Ginsberg v. New York · 390 U.S. 629 (1968)
• Salinas v. United States · 522 U.S. 52 (1997)
• Gulf Oil Co. v. Bernard · 452 U.S. 89 (1981)

Cited by

Later Supreme Court opinions in our collection that cite this case.

• Xiulu Ruan v. United States · 597 U.S. 450 (2022)
• Rehaif v. United States · 588 U.S. 225 (2019)
• Luna Torres v. Lynch · 578 U.S. 452 (2016)

Official text

Read the official opinion (U.S. Reports, govinfo.gov)

Explore from here

John Glover Roberts Jr.’s profile · All Supreme Court opinions · The Supreme Court

Source: Supreme Court of the United States, slip opinions (2015). Citation count from the Free Law Project’s CourtListener bulk data. Data last verified 2026-07-03. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).