Stromberg v. People Of State Of California, 283 U.S. 359 (1931)

"The State may punish those who indulge in
utterances which incite to violence and crime.
But the opportunity for free political discussion
is a fundamental principle of our constitutional system..."

San Bernardino, California, 1928. 19-year-old Yetta Stromberg works at a summer camp run by the Communist Party. Like camp counsellors across the country, everyday she leads children in a flag ceremony -- except her flag is red, for the Communist Party. And the pledge goes: "to the workers' red flag, and to the cause for which it stands, one aim throughout our lives, freedom for the working class."

California law prohibits displaying a symbol which "opposes organized government," including a red flag. Ms. Stromberg is charged and convicted.

In 1931, the U.S. Supreme Court absolves her. "There is no question," writes Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes, "but that the State may thus provide for the punishment of those who indulge in utterances which incite to violence and crime and threaten the overthrow of organized government by unlawful means." However, he adds, "The maintenance of the opportunity for free political discussion to the end that government may be responsive to the will of the people and that changes may be obtained by lawful means, an opportunity essential to the security of the Republic is a fundamental principle of our constitutional system. A statute which upon its face, and as authoritatively construed, is so vague and indefinite as to permit the punishment of the fair use of this opportunity is repugnant to the guaranty of liberty contained in the Fourteenth Amendment."

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AMENDMENT 14 Due Process and Equal Protection of the Law

Passed by Congress June 13, 1866. Ratified July 9, 1868.

Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. [^].

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