Cohen v. California
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued February 22, 1971 Decided June 7, 1971
Full case name: Paul Robert Cohen, Appellant v. State of 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, Second Appellate District 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 E. Burger Associate Justices: Hugo Black, William O. Douglas, John Marshall Harlan II, William J. 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; Cal. Penal Code § 415

Cohen v. California, 403 U.S. 15 (1971) was a United States Supreme Court case dealing with freedom of speech. Image File history File links Seal_of_the_United_States_Supreme_Court. ... Federal courts Supreme Court Circuit Courts of Appeal District Courts Elections Presidential elections Midterm elections Political Parties Democratic Republican Third parties State & Local government Governors Legislatures (List) State Courts Local Government Other countries  Atlas  Politics Portal      The Supreme Court of the United States (sometimes colloquially referred to by the acronym... Los Angeles and L.A. redirect here. ... Court of Appeals is the title of certain appellate courts in various jurisdictions. ... Justices of the Supreme Court of California (circa May 2005). ... Warren Earl Burger (September 17, 1907 – June 25, 1995) was Chief Justice of the United States from 1969 to 1986. ... Hugo Black Hugo LaFayette Black (February 27, 1886 – September 25, 1971) was a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (1937 - 1971). ... William Orville Douglas (October 16, 1898 – January 19, 1980) was a United States Supreme Court Associate Justice. ... John Marshall Harlan II (May 20, 1899 – December 29, 1971) was an American jurist. ... William J. Brennan, official portrait, 1976. ... Potter Stewart (January 23, 1915 – December 7, 1985) was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. ... Byron Raymond White (June 8, 1916 – April 15, 2002) won fame both as a football running back and as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. ... Thurgood Marshall (July 2, 1908 – January 24, 1993) was an American jurist and the first African American to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States. ... Justice Harry Blackmun Harry Andrew Blackmun (November 12, 1908 – March 4, 1999) was an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1970 to 1994. ... “First Amendment” redirects here. ... The California Penal Code forms the basis for the application of criminal law in the American state of California. ... // The United States Reports, the official reporter of the Supreme Court of the United States Case citation is the system used in common law countries such as the United States, England and Wales, Ireland, Canada, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Australia and India to uniquely identify the location of past court... Year 1971 (MCMLXXI) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar) of the 1971 Gregorian calendar. ... Federal courts Supreme Court Circuit Courts of Appeal District Courts Elections Presidential elections Midterm elections Political Parties Democratic Republican Third parties State & Local government Governors Legislatures (List) State Courts Local Government Other countries  Atlas  Politics Portal      The Supreme Court of the United States (sometimes colloquially referred to by the acronym... Citizens of the United States often treat free speech as a fundamental right and often a matter of patriotism. ...

Background of the case

On April 26, 1968, 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 prohibited "maliciously and willfully disturb[ing] the peace or quiet of any neighborhood or person [by] offensive conduct." This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... “Conscript” redirects here. ... Los Angeles and L.A. redirect here. ... In most counties in the United States the local trial courts conduct their business in a centrally located courthouse which may also house the offices of the county treasurer, clerk and recorder and assessor. ... The California Penal Code forms the basis for the application of criminal law in the American state of California. ... The term Malice has several meanings: Malice (legal term), a legal term describing the intent to harm Malice (movie), a 1993 movie starring Nicole Kidman, Alec Baldwin and Bill Pullman Malice (noun), a way to describe the feeling of hatred or disrespect. ... A peace dove, widely known as a symbol for peace, featuring an olive branch in the doves beak. ...

The conviction was upheld by the California Court of Appeal, 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." After the California Supreme Court denied review, the U.S. Supreme Court granted a writ of certiorari. Court of Appeals is the title of certain appellate courts in various jurisdictions. ... Offensive may relate to In sports or combat, the team which is attacking, pitching or moving forwards In language or morals, terms and concepts which are unacceptable to some people, such as swearing and profanity. ... For other uses, see Violence (disambiguation). ... A peace dove, widely known as a symbol for peace, featuring an olive branch in the doves beak. ... The Supreme Court of California is the state supreme court in California. ...

The Court's decision

The Court, by a vote of 5-4, per Justice John Marshall Harlan II, overturned the appellate court's ruling. "[A]bsent a more particularized and compelling reason for its actions," it said, "the State may not, consistently with the First and Fourteenth Amendments, make the simple public display of this single four-letter expletive a criminal offense." John Marshall Harlan II (May 20, 1899 – December 29, 1971) was an American jurist. ... Federal courts Supreme Court Circuit Courts of Appeal District Courts Elections Presidential elections Midterm elections Political Parties Democratic Republican Third parties State & Local government Governors Legislatures (List) State Courts Local Government Other countries Atlas  US Government Portal      A U.S. state is any one of the fifty subnational entities of... “First Amendment” redirects here. ... Amendment XIV in the National Archives The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution (Amendment XIV) is one of the post-Civil War amendments (known as the Reconstruction Amendments), first intended to secure rights for former slaves. ... The word expletive is currently used in three senses: syntactic expletives, expletive attributives, and bad language. The word expletive comes from the Latin verb explere, meaning to fill, via expletivus, filling out. It was introduced into English in the seventeenth century to refer to various kinds of padding — the padding...

In the opinion Justice Harlan famously wrote "one man's vulgarity is another's lyric." (That quotation was later criticized by Robert Bork as "moral relativism.") ^[1] The term vulgar originally meant of the common people, from the Latin vulgus. ... omg holy crap| cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0 style=width:270px; margin: 0 0 1em 1em; background:#FFFFFF; border: 0px #aaaaaa solid; border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 85%; float:right; | // |- |} Lyric be excepted. ... Robert Heron Bork (born March 1, 1927) is a conservative American legal scholar who advocates the judicial philosophy of originalism. ... In philosophy, moral relativism is the position that moral or ethical propositions do not reflect objective and/or universal moral truths, but instead make claims relative to social, cultural, historical or personal circumstances. ...

Blackmun's dissent

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. Dissent is a sentiment or philosophy of non-agreement or opposition to an idea (eg. ... Justice Harry Blackmun Harry Andrew Blackmun (November 12, 1908 – March 4, 1999) was an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1970 to 1994. ... Contempt of court is a court ruling which, in the context of a court trial or hearing, deems an individual as holding contempt for the court, its process, and its invested powers. ...

The second paragraph of Blackmun's dissent, which White joined, noted that the Supreme Court of California construed section 415 in In re Bushman 1 Cal.3d 767, 83 Cal.Rptr. 375 (Cal, 1970), which was decided after the Court of Appeal of California's decision in Cohen v. California and the Supreme Court of California's denial of review. Blackmun wrote that the case "ought to be remanded to the California Court of Appeal for reconsideration in the light of the subsequently rendered decision by the State's highest tribunal in Bushman." // The United States Reports, the official reporter of the Supreme Court of the United States Case citation is the system used in common law countries such as the United States, England and Wales, Ireland, Canada, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Australia and India to uniquely identify the location of past court... Justices of the Supreme Court of California (circa May 2005). ... Year 1970 (MCMLXX) was a common year starting on Thursday (link shows full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

See also

• List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 403

This is a list of all the United States Supreme Court cases from volume 403 of the United States Reports: , , Cohen v. ...

References

1. ^ Conversations: Robert Bork says, Give me liberty, but don't give me filth Christianity Today

Christianity Today is an Evangelical Christian periodical based in Carol Stream, Illinois. ...

External links

• First Amendment Library entry for Cohen v. California
• Cohen v. California decision, at BC
• Full text of Supreme Court decision on Findlaw
• Cohen v. California Summary
• Abstract on Cohen v. California, from OYEZ