What is a "Person"?

"My head knocks against the stars.

My feet are on the hilltops.

My finger-tips are in the valleys and shores of universal life.

Down in the sounding foam of primal things I reach my hands and play with pebbles of destiny.

I have been to hell and back many times.

I know all about heaven, for I have talked with God.

I dabble in the blood and guts of the terrible.

I know the passionate seizure of beauty

And the marvelous rebellion of man at all signs reading "Keep Off."

My name is Truth and I am the most elusive captive in the universe"

 

- Carl Sandburg 

The Ninth Circuit took 64 pages to debate the question of what a "person" is...en banc, and still did not arrive at a consensus (spoiler - "person" means a real person).  All the more reason for Rick Santorum to follow through with his threat to disband the 9th! 

I think it would have been more fun if Kozinski wrote a one-page "who am I" poem.

As issue is 18 u.s.c. 876(c), which deals with mailing threats to persons.  From the dissent:

"Disagreeing, the majority concludes that Havelock’s manifesto was not addressed to natural persons because it indicates nothing about the identity of any individual person to whom the communication supposedly was addressed. Unlike the majority, however, I can find nothing in § 876(c) that precludes liability when a threatening communication is addressed to, and threatens mass murder against, a community rather than a specific individual. I also can think of no reason why Congress would not have been concerned about threats
to commit mass murder. I would therefore hold that Havelock’s communications were addressed to natural persons."

It is an interesting read, if for not other reason than to ponder why a man who showed up at the Superbowl with a newly purchased AR-15 and lots of ammo, was not prosecuted for a terrorism related offense - there will be a quiz next week to see if you can figure out the answer.

Here is a link to the opinion: US v. Kurt Havelock