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Noto v. United States, 367 U.S. 290 (1961)
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General SummaryThis case is from a collection containing the full text of over 16,000 Supreme Court cases from 1793 to the present. The body of Supreme Court decisions are, effectively, the final interpretation of the Constitution. Only an amendment to the Constitution can permanently overturn an interpretation and this has happened only four times in American history.
Noto v. United States, 367 U.S. 290 (1961)
Noto v. United States No. 9 Argued October 10-11, 1960 Decided June 5, 1961 367 U.S. 290
CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT
Syllabus
Petitioner was convicted of violating the so-called membership clause of the Smith Act, which makes a felony the acquisition or holding of membership in any organization which advocates the overthrow of the Government of the United States by force or violence, knowing the purpose thereof.
Held: the judgment is reversed, because the evidence was insufficient to prove that the Communist Party presently advocated forcible overthrow of the Government not as an abstract doctrine, but by the use of language reasonably and ordinarily calculated to incite persons to action, immediately or in the future. Pp. 291-300.
(a) In order to support a conviction under the membership clause of the Smith Act, there must be some substantial direct or circumstantial evidence of a call to violence now or in the future which is both sufficiently strong and sufficiently pervasive to lend color to the otherwise ambiguous theoretical material regarding Communist Party teaching and to justify the inference that such a call to violence may fairly be imputed to the Party as a whole, and not merely to some narrow segment of it. P. 298.
(b) It is present advocacy, not an intent to advocate in the future or a conspiracy to advocate in the future, which is an element of the crime under the membership clause of the Smith Act. P. 298.
(c) A defendant must be judged upon the evidence in his own trial, and not upon the evidence in some other trial or upon what may be supposed to be the tenets of the Communist Party. P. 299.
262 F. 2d 501 reversed.
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Chicago: U.S. Supreme Court, "Syllabus," Noto v. United States, 367 U.S. 290 (1961) in 367 U.S. 290 369 U.S. 291. Original Sources, accessed November 24, 2024, http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=12NRK9THMDWAXGI.
MLA: U.S. Supreme Court. "Syllabus." Noto v. United States, 367 U.S. 290 (1961), in 367 U.S. 290, page 369 U.S. 291. Original Sources. 24 Nov. 2024. http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=12NRK9THMDWAXGI.
Harvard: U.S. Supreme Court, 'Syllabus' in Noto v. United States, 367 U.S. 290 (1961). cited in 1961, 367 U.S. 290, pp.369 U.S. 291. Original Sources, retrieved 24 November 2024, from http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=12NRK9THMDWAXGI.
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