ERIC H. HOLDER, JR., ATTORNEY GENERAL, et al. v. HUMANITARIAN LAW PROJECT et al.
Supreme Court Cases
561 U.S. 1 (2010)
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Whether the Florida Legislative Investigative Committee, in an attempt to inform itself about activities of subversive organizations, violated petitioners First and Fourteenth Amendment association rights.
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Does requiring individuals to register their political party affiliation with the Attorney General violate the First Amendment?
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Whether the membership clause of the Smith Act, as applied to an "active member" of the Communist party, infringes on freedoms of expression and association in violation of the First Amendment.
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Whether a conviction under the membership clause of the Smith Act was based on sufficient evidence that a Communist Party member "presently advocated forcible overthrow of the Government."
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Whether a Louisiana statute which compels teachers in public institutions to disclose which organizations they belong or contribute to unconstitutionally burdens a teachers 14th Amendment right of free association.
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Whether the Subcommittee of the House Committee on Un-American Activities inquiry into petitioners past or present membership in the Communist Party violated the First Amendment.
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SPEISER v. RANDALL, ASSESSOR OF CONTRA COSTA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA
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Whether a California law requiring a loyalty oath in order to gain a tax exemption violated due process of law.
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YATES et al. v. UNITED STATES
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Whether the conviction of 14 Communists under the Smith Act for conspiring to "advocate and teach the duty of overthrowing the government by force or violence" violated the First Amendment
WATKINS v. UNITED STATES
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SWEEZY v. NEW HAMPSHIRE, BY WYMAN, ATTORNEY GENERAL
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Whether an investigation conducted under the aegis of state legislature to determine whether a professor was a subversive person in the state and including asking him for the contents of a lecture he gave at the state university and his knowledge of the Progressive Party violated the First Amendment.
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PETERS v. HOBBY et al.
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WIEMAN et al. v. UPDEGRAFF et al.
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Whether a state loyalty oath violated the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
HARISIADES v. SHAUGHNESSY, DISTRICT DIRECTOR OF IMMIGRATION AND NATURALIZATION
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Whether the Alien Registration Act of 1940, authorizing the deportation of legally resident aliens because of membership in the Communist Party, violated freedom of speech and assembly in contravention of the First Amendment.
DENNIS ET AL. v. UNITED STATES
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Whether the Smith Act which makes it a crime to "knowingly or willfully advocate, abet, advise, or teach the duty, necessity, desirability, or propriety of overthrowing or destroying any government in the United States by force or violence, or by assignation" is on its face and as applied to the Petitioners violative of the First Amendment.
FEINER v. NEW YORK
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Whether the police can charge a speaker with disorderly conduct for continuing to speak to a restless and hostile crowd.
AMERICAN COMMUNICATIONS ASSN., C. I. O., ET AL. v. DOUDS, REGIONAL DIRECTOR OF THE NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
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Whether sect. 9 (h) of the Taft Hartley Act (1947) which required officers of labor unions to sign affidavits indicating that they were not members of the Communist Party, or supporters of it, or advocated the violent overthrow of the government violated the First Amendment
TERMINIELLO v. CHICAGO
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Does the First Amendment protect people’s right to say things that make other people so angry that it may lead them to cause unrest?
TAYLOR v. MISSISSIPPI
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Whether a Mississippi statute punishing speech "reasonably tending to create an attitude of stubborn refusal to salute, honor, and respect the flag and government of the United States" or "calculated to encourage disloyalty to the government of the United States" violates the First Amendment
Gorin v. United States
Decided:
HERNDON v. LOWRY, SHERIFF
Decided:
Whether a Georgia law prohibiting an "attempt to incite insurrection" was unconstitutional as applied to a Communist member planning to distribute literature, because the law was too vague to provide a sufficiently ascertainable standard of guilt.
DE JONGE v. OREGON
Decided:
Whether, consistent with the First and Fourteenth Amendments, mere participation in a meeting called by the Communist Party can be criminalized.
FISKE v. KANSAS
Decided:
Whether quoting in print "equivocal language" from the preamble to the IWW Constitution amounted to criminal syndicalism unprotected by the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
WHITNEY v. CALIFORNIA
Decided:
Whether California's criminal syndicalism law that made it a crime to defend, advocate, or establish an organization committed to violent means of effecting government change violated the First Amendment.
GITLOW v. PEOPLE OF NEW YORK
Decided:
Whether (1) the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment applies to states, and (2) whether the state criminal anarchy law violated First Amendment.
PIERCE et al. v. UNITED STATES
Decided:
SCHAEFER v. UNITED STATES
Decided:
ABRAMS et al. v. UNITED STATES
Decided:
Whether the Espionage Act violates the First Amendment as applied to distributing leaflets calling for a strike at U.S. ammunitions plants.
DEBS v. UNITED STATES
Decided:
Whether a political candidate’s speech that was considered to obstruct the United States’ war effort in violation of the Espionage Act deserved First Amendment protection.
FROHWERK v. UNITED STATES
Decided:
Whether a conviction under the Espionage Act of 1917 for circulating anti-war articles should be overturned on First Amendment grounds.
SCHENCK v. UNITED STATES
Decided:
Charles Schenck was charged with conspiracy to violate the Espionage Act for distributing anti-war leaflets that urged people to boycott the draft.