Dejonge v. Oregon 1937

AuthorDaniel Brannen, Richard Hanes, Elizabeth Shaw
Pages6-10

Page 6

Petitioner: Dirk De Jonge

Respondent: State of Oregon

Petitioner's Claim: That his conviction for attending and speaking at a meeting organized by the Communist Party violated the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Chief Lawyer for Petitioner: Osmond K. Fraenkel

Chief Lawyer for Respondent: Maurice E. Tarshis

Justices for the Court: Louis D. Brandeis, Pierce Butler, Benjamin N. Cardozo, Charles Evans Hughes (writing for the Court), James Clark McReynolds, Owen Josephus Roberts, George Sutherland, Willis Van Devanter

Justices Dissenting: None (Harlan Fiske Stone did not participate)

Date of Decision: January 4, 1937

Decision: Conviction for attending a peaceable assembly violates the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Significance: Although the First Amendment prevents only the federal government from violating the right to freedom of assembly, the Court protected freedom of assembly from state action by using the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

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Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes. Courtesy of the Supreme Court of the United States.

Freedom to revolt

The U.S. Constitution protects freedom for all citizens, even those who want to overthrow the federal government. Communism, for example, competed with the U.S. system of capitalism for world domination during most of the twentieth century. Communism is a political and economic system that aims to achieve equality for all people through government ownership of property. Capitalism is based on property ownership by individuals. Communists believe that workers under capitalism suffer to make business and property owners wealthy.

In 1917 the Communist Party took control of the government in Russia. In 1922 Russia and neighboring communist countries formed the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), known as the Soviet Union for short. The Soviet government's goal was to spread communism throughout the world, by force and violence if necessary.

In the United States at the time, workers and members of the Communist Party tried to fight against capitalism. In 1905, for example, workers formed a labor union called the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). The union's goal was to replace capitalism with an economy run by the workers. Because the Soviet Union became a powerful country under communism...

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