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Whitney v. California
A United States Supreme Court decision upholding the conviction of Charlotte Anita Whitney who had engaged in speech that raised a threat to society. Charlotte Anita Whitney was convicted under the 1919 California Criminal Syndicalism Act for allegedly helping to establish the Communist Labor Party of America, a group charged by the state with teaching the violent overthrow of government. -
Cantwell v. Connecticut
The Cantwells were going door to door with books. One book was "Enemies", which was an attack on organized religion in general and especially the Roman Catholic Church. Jesse Cantwell stopped two men on the street. Cantwell and his two sons were arrested and charged with violation of a Connecticut statute requiring solicitors to obtain a certificate from the secretary of the public welfare council before soliciting funds from the public, and inciting a common-law breach of the peace. -
West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette
A landmark decision by the United States Supreme Court holding that the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment protects students from being forced to salute the American flag or say the Pledge of Allegiance in public school. They consider that the flag is an 'image' within this command. For this reason, they refused to salute the flag. In the United States, children of Jehovah's Witnesses had been expelled from school and were threatened with exclusion for no other cause. -
McCollum v. Board of Education
The case tested where public schools set aside class time for religious instruction. The Court struck down a Champaign, Illinois program as unconstitutional because of the public school system's involvement in the administration, organization and support of religious instruction classes. The case was brought by Vashti McCollum, the mother of a student enrolled in the Champaign public school district. -
Terminiello v. City of Chicago
An ex-Catholic priest gave a racist, anti-Semitic speech in a Chicago auditorium to the Christian Veterans of America. A case that held that a "breach of peace" ordinance of the City of Chicago that banned speech which "stirs the public to anger, invites dispute, brings about a condition of unrest, or creates a disturbance" was unconstitutional under the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. -
Epperson v. Arkansas
A United States Supreme Court case that invalidated an Arkansas statute that prohibited the teaching of human evolution in the public schools. The Court held that the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, "that teaching and learning must be tailored to the principles or prohibitions of any religious sect or dogma." The Supreme Court declared the Arkansas statute unconstitutional because it violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. -
Walz v. Tax Commission of the City of New York
A case before the United States Supreme Court. The Court held that grants of tax exemption to religious organizations do not violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. -
McDonald v. Smith
David Smith claimed that Mcdonald had included malicious lies in a letter to the President of his possible appointment as a United States attorney. Smith claimed that these lies damaged his chances of hire and reputation. Since the alleged libel was contained in a letter to the President, he moved for judgment on the pleadings on the grounds that the Petition Clause of the First Amendment protected his right to express his views without limitation as long as it was part of a protected petition. -
Marsh v. Chambers
Nebraska state senator Ernie Chambers sued in federal court claiming that the legislature's practice of opening sessions with a prayer offered by a state-supported chaplain was in violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. The district court held that the prayer did not violate the Constitution, but that state support for the chaplain did. The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals held that both practices violated the Constitution. -
Virginia v. Black
Three defendants were convicted in two separate cases of violating a Virginia statute against cross burning. In this case, the Court struck down that statute to the extent that it considered cross burning as evidence of intent to intimidate. The Court argued, blurs the distinction between proscribable "threats of intimidation" and the Ku Klux Klan's protected "messages of shared ideology." However, cross-burning can be a criminal offense if the intent to intimidate is proven.
