In the free speech case Elonis vs. United State which was featured earlier on Qntra, the justices of the United States Supreme Court decided in favor of Elonis. Elonis challenged his conviction under Federal statutes prohibiting the interstate transmission of threats for his having authored rap lyrics. The justices vacated the conviction and sent the case back to a lower court to be reconsidered under a stricter standard for prosecution which would require demonstrating Elonis had a criminally culpable state of mind, or Mens Rea when disseminating his lyrics. While the decision was not a complete victory for Elonis the idea that offense is something imposed by the recipient of an utterance, and if utterances are to ever be criminal Mens Rea must be established is almost a positive development in the bleak wasteland of the United States legal system.