Hess v. Indiana

Hess v. Indiana, 414 U.S. 105 (1973), was a United States Supreme Court case[1] involving the First Amendment that reaffirmed and clarified the imminent lawless action test first articulated in Brandenburg v. Ohio. Hess is still cited by courts to protect speech threatening future lawless action.[2]

Hess v. Indiana
Supreme Court of the United States
Decided November 19, 1973
Full case name	Gregory Hess v. State of Indiana
Docket no.	73-5290
Citations	414 U.S. 105 (more) 94 S. Ct. 326; 38 L. Ed. 2d 303; 1973 U.S. LEXIS 177
Case history
Prior	Hess v. State, 260 Ind. 427, 297 N.E.2d 413 (1973)
Holding
Hess's language did not fall within any of the "narrowly limited classes of speech" that the States may punish without violating the First and Fourteenth Amendments.
Court membership
Chief Justice Warren E. Burger Associate Justices William O. Douglas · William J. Brennan Jr. Potter Stewart · Byron White Thurgood Marshall · Harry Blackmun Lewis F. Powell Jr. · William Rehnquist
Case opinions
Per curiam
Dissent	Rehnquist, joined by Burger, Blackmun
Laws applied
U.S. Const. amend. I

Background

The case involved an antiwar protest on the campus of Indiana University Bloomington. Between 100 and 150 protesters were in the streets. The sheriff and his deputies then proceeded to clear the streets of the protestors. As the sheriff was passing Gregory Hess, one of the members of the crowd, Hess uttered, "We'll take the fucking street later" or "We'll take the fucking street again." Hess was convicted in Indiana state court of disorderly conduct.

Decision

The Supreme Court reversed Hess's conviction because the statement, at worst, "amounted to nothing more than advocacy of illegal action at some indefinite future time. This is not sufficient to permit the State to punish Hess' speech."[3]

See also

• Clear and present danger
• Imminent lawless action
• List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 414
• Shouting fire in a crowded theater
• Threatening the President of the United States
• Abrams v. United States, 250 U.S. 616 (1919)
• Brandenburg v. Ohio, 395 U.S. 444 (1969)
• Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire, 315 U.S. 568 (1942)
• Dennis v. United States, 341 U.S. 494 (1951)
• Feiner v. New York, 340 U.S. 315 (1951)
• Korematsu v. United States, 323 U.S. 214 (1944)
• Kunz v. New York, 340 U.S. 290 (1951)
• Masses Publishing Co. v. Patten, (1917)
• Sacher v. United States, 343 U.S. 1 (1952)
• Schenck v. United States, 248 U.S. 47 (1919)
• Terminiello v. Chicago, 337 U.S. 1 (1949)
• Whitney v. California, 274 U.S. 357 (1927)

References

1. Hess v. Indiana, 414 U.S. 105 (1973).
2. "Fighting words: Hess v. Indiana tested limits of free speech during wartime". IU News Room, Indiana University. November 17, 2004. Retrieved May 16, 2017.
3. Hess, 414 U.S. at 108.

Further reading

• Bogaty, Lewis (1978). "Beyond Tinker and Healy: Applying the First Amendment to Student Activities". Columbia Law Review. 78 (8): 1700–1713. doi:10.2307/1121861.

External links

• Text of Hess v. Indiana, 414 U.S. 105 (1973) is available from:  CourtListener  Findlaw  Google Scholar  Justia  Library of Congress  Oyez (oral argument audio) 
• Thomson Reuters blog post: TODAY IN 1973: SUPREME COURT EXPANDS FREE SPEECH IN HESS V. INDIANA