Brandenburg v. Ohio 1969

• Author: Daniel Brannen, Richard Hanes, Elizabeth Shaw
• Pages: 210-215

Contenidos

• Revenge!.
• Justice For All.
• Impact.
• Suggestions for further reading.

Page 210

Appellant: Clarence Brandenburg

Appellee: State of Ohio

Appellant's Claim: That convicting him for threatening the government at a Ku Klux Klan rally violated his freedom of speech.

Chief Lawyer for Appellant: Allen Brown

Chief Lawyer for Appellee: Leonard Kirschner

Justices for the Court: Hugo Lafayette Black, William J. Brennan, Jr., William O. Douglas, Abe Fortas, John M. Harlan II, Thurgood Marshall, Potter Stewart, Earl Warren, Byron R. White (unsigned decision)

Justices Dissenting: None

Date of Decision: June 9, 1969

Decision: The Supreme Court reversed Brandenburg's conviction as unconstitutional.

Significance: After Brandenburg, the First Amendment protects speech unless it encourages immediate violence or other unlawful action.

Threats against the government present a special problem for the freedom of speech. The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution says, "Congress shall make no law . . . abridging [limiting] the freedom of speech." State and local governments must obey the freedom of speech

Page 211

under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The freedom of speech prevents the government from punishing someone for speaking his mind.

Governments naturally want to prevent revolutions or other violence against them. In the United States, however, the freedom of speech protects the right to criticize the government and to speak in favor of changing it. The question becomes whether this freedom allows people to speak in favor of violence against the government. That was the question in Brandenburg v. Ohio.

Revenge!

In 1919, Ohio passed a law called a criminal syndicalism statute. The law made it a crime to support sabotage, violence, or other unlawful ways to change the government. It also made it a crime to assemble a group of people to teach or support such conduct. The law originally was designed to fight communists, who supported violent revolution against American governments.

By the 1960s, communism was not a big threat in America. The civil rights movement, however, became strong. The civil rights movement was an effort by African Americans to achieve equal rights in America. The government helped the civil rights movement by passing laws to give equal rights to all people in America. Some white Americans who did not like the civil rights movement formed groups to oppose it. One of those groups was the Ku Klux...