In 1990, Judas Priest was involved in a civil action that alleged they were responsible for the suicide attempts in 1985 of 20-year old James Vance and 19-year old Ray Belknap in Reno, Nevada, USA.
Their parents alleged that a subliminal message of "do it" had been included in the song. They alleged the command in the song triggered the suicide attempt. The three-week trial was watched closely by the music industry and constitutional lawyers.
In a pre-trial motion, the judge ruled that subliminal messages were incapable of being protected speech under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, since they were by definition not noticeable and thus could not form part of a dialogue.
Timothy Moore, who testified on Judas Priest's behalf, stated that the plaintiffs achieved "a major victory in getting the case to trial in the first place;" He also said that it would make more sense for Priest to have inserted the command “buy more of our records” instead of telling them to kill themselves.
The case was dismissed, with the finding that any subliminal messages within the recording were not responsible for the suicides.