Cohen v. California
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|
| Cohen v. California |
Supreme Court of the United States
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Argued February 22, 1971
Decided June 7, 1971
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| Full case name: |
Paul Robert Cohen v. California |
| Citations: |
403 U.S. 15; 91 S. Ct. 1780; 29 L. Ed. 2d 284; 1971 U.S. LEXIS 32 |
| Prior history: |
Defendant convicted, Los Angeles Municipal Court; affirmed, 81 Cal. Rptr. 503 (Cal. Ct.App. 1969);
rehearing denied, Court of Appeal of California, 11-13-69; review denied, Supreme Court of California, 12-17-69 |
| Subsequent history: |
Rehearing denied, 404 U.S. 876 (1971) |
|
| Holding |
| The First Amendment, as applied through the Fourteenth, prohibits states from making the public display of a single
four-letter expletive a criminal offense, without a more specific and compelling reason than a general tendency to disturb the
peace. Court of Appeal of California reversed. |
| Court membership |
| Chief Justice Warren Burger |
| Associate Judges Hugo Black, Warren Douglas, John Marshall Harlan II, William Brennan, Potter Stewart, Byron White,
Thurgood Marshall, Harry Blackmun |
|
| Case opinions |
| Majority by: Harlan |
| Joined by: Douglas, Brennan, Stewart, Marshall |
| Dissent by: Blackmun |
| Joined by: Burger, Black, White (only paragraph 2) |
|
| Laws applied |
| U.S. Const. amend. I, XIV; Cal. Penal Code ยง 415 |
Cohen v. California, 403 U.S. 15 (1971) was a United
States Supreme Court case dealing with freedom of speech.
Paul Robert Cohen, 19, was arrested for wearing a jacket with the words "Fuck the
Draft" inside the Los Angeles Courthouse. He was convicted of
violating section 415 of the California Penal Code, which prohibits "maliciously and willfully disturb[ing] the peace or
quiet of any neighborhood or person [by] offensive conduct."
The conviction was appealed to the state Court of Appeals, which
held that "offensive conduct" means "behavior which has a tendency to provoke
others to acts of violence or to in turn disturb the peace," and affirmed the conviction.
The Court, by a vote of 5-4, overturned the appellate court's ruling. "Absent a more particularized and compelling reason for
its actions," it said, "the State may not, consistently with the First
Amendment and Fourteenth Amendment, make the simple public display of this single
four-letter expletive a criminal offense."
In a dissenting opinion, Justice Harry Blackmun, joined by Burger and Black, suggested that Cohen's wearing of the jacket in the courthouse
was not speech but conduct (an "absurd and immature antic"), and therefore not protected by the First Amendment. However,
it was pointed out that Cohen took his jacket off while inside the city courtroom, and was not held in contempt of court for its content; rather, he was arrested after he left
the room.
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