The lawsuit alleged that the band's recording contained hidden messages which were responsible for influencing a pair of young men in Sparks, Nevada, to make a suicide pact in 1985.
In the middle of 1990, Judas Priest were involved in a civil action that alleged they were responsible for the 1985 suicide attempts of 20-year-old James Vance and 18-year-old Ray Belknap in Reno, Nevada, US.
[3] Vance's parents and their legal team, headed by Nevada attorney Ken McKenna, subsequently alleged that a subliminal message of "do it" had been included in the song.
[2] 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 (led by McKenna) achieved "a major victory in getting the case to trial in the first place".
He performed a sketch mimicking Judas Priest being sick of their wealth, power, and fame and coming up with the subliminal message as a solution to their problems.