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Brandenburg v. Ohio, 395 U.S. 444 (1969)
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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.
Brandenburg v. Ohio, 395 U.S. 444 (1969)
Brandenburg v. Ohio No. 492 Argued February 27, 1969 Decided June 9, 1969 395 U.S. 444
APPEAL FROM THE SUPREME COURT OF OHIO
Syllabus
Appellant, a Ku Klux Klan leader, was convicted under the Ohio Criminal Syndicalism statute for
advocat[ing] . . . the duty, necessity, or propriety of crime, sabotage, violence, or unlawful methods of terrorism as a means of accomplishing industrial or political reform
and for
voluntarily assembl[ing] with any society, group or assemblage of persons formed to teach or advocate the doctrines of criminal syndicalism.
Neither the indictment nor the trial judge’s instructions refined the statute’s definition of the crime in terms of mere advocacy not distinguished from incitement to imminent lawless action.
Held: Since the statute, by its words and as applied, purports to punish mere advocacy and to forbid, on pain of criminal punishment, assembly with others merely to advocate the described type of action, it falls within the condemnation of the First and Fourteenth Amendments. Freedoms of speech and press do not permit a State to forbid advocacy of the use of force or of law violation except where such advocacy is directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or produce such action. Whitney v. California, 274 U.S. 357, overruled.
Reversed.
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Chicago: U.S. Supreme Court, "Syllabus," Brandenburg v. Ohio, 395 U.S. 444 (1969) in 395 U.S. 444 Original Sources, accessed November 24, 2024, http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=ZA7TMC9SEUVQ2VL.
MLA: U.S. Supreme Court. "Syllabus." Brandenburg v. Ohio, 395 U.S. 444 (1969), in 395 U.S. 444, Original Sources. 24 Nov. 2024. http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=ZA7TMC9SEUVQ2VL.
Harvard: U.S. Supreme Court, 'Syllabus' in Brandenburg v. Ohio, 395 U.S. 444 (1969). cited in 1969, 395 U.S. 444. Original Sources, retrieved 24 November 2024, from http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=ZA7TMC9SEUVQ2VL.
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