Beauharnais v. Illinois

Infobox SCOTUS case
Litigants=Beauharnais v. Illinois
ArgueDate=November 28
ArgueYear=1951
DecideDate=April 28
DecideYear=1952
FullName=Beauharnais v. Illinois
USVol=343
USPage=250
Citation=72 S. Ct. 725; 96 L. Ed. 919; 1952 U.S. LEXIS 2799
Prior="Cert." to the S.Ct. of IL. The Supreme Court of Illinois sustained petitioner's conviction of a violation of Ill. Rev. Stat., 1949, c. 38 § 471, over his objection that the statute was invalid under the Fourteenth Amendment. 408 Ill. 512, 97 N. E. 2d 343. This Court granted certiorari. 342 U.S. 809. Affirmed, p. 267
Subsequent=
Holding=The Court upheld an Illinois law making it illegal to publish or exhibit any writing or picture portraying the "depravity, criminality, unchasity, or lack of virtue of a class of citizens of any race, color, creed or religion."
SCOTUS=1949-1953
Majority=Frankfurter
JoinMajority=Vinson, Burton, Clark, Minton
Dissent=Black
JoinDissent=Douglas
Dissent2=Reed
JoinDissent2=Douglas
Dissent3=Douglas
Dissent4=Jackson
LawsApplied=U.S. Const. amends. I, XIV

"Beauharnais v. Illinois", 343 U.S. 250 (1952), [ussc|343|250|Full text of the decision courtesy of Findlaw.com] was a case that came before the Supreme Court in 1952. The result was that an Illinois law making it illegal to publish or exhibit any writing or picture portraying the "depravity, criminality, unchasity, or lack of virtue of a class of citizens of any race, color, creed or religion" was upheld.

The defendant in Beauharnais distributed a leaflet "setting forth a petition calling on the Mayor and City Council of Chicago 'to halt the further encroachment, harassment and invasion of white people, their property, neighborhoods and persons, by the Negro.'" His criminal conviction by the trial court was sustained by the Illinois Supreme Court which the U.S. Supreme Court upheld after rejecting the Fourteenth Amendment Due Process challenge.

In his opinion Justice Frankfurter argued that the speech conducted by the defendant breached libel, which is reasoned to be outside the protection of the 1st and 14th Amendments.

ubsequent History

"Beauharnais" has never been explicitly overruled; however, its authority as good law has been called into question.

References

ee also

* List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 343
* [http://1stam.umn.edu/archive/primary/Beauharnais.pdf The leaflet that started it] .

External links

* [http://www.enfacto.com/case/U.S./343/250/ Beauharnais v. Illinois, 343 U.S. 250 (1952)] (opinion full text).