They do consider it money for a variety of things.

For SEC laws its generally considered money.  For the Silk Road case Ross Ulbright was just convicted of ... money laundering which specifically requires a monetary instrument (his lawyer lost the argument that bitcoin is not money). 

Basically the courts have all  held that bitcoin is money when it comes to criminal acts  that otherwise require money.  The IRS considers it money if a merchant sells goods in it but a commodity other times.  The IRS is the weirdo and has rules that are highly situational dependent on how they view bitcoin.