Home > Great American Court Cases > Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire

Legal Citation: 315 U.S. 568 (1942).

Appellant
Walter Chaplinsky

Appellee
State of New Hampshire

Appellant's Claim
That a state statute prohibiting certain types of public speech violates the First Amendment guarantee of free speech.

Chief Lawyer for Appellant
Hayden C. Covington

Chief Lawyer for Appellee
Frank R. Kenison

Justices for the Court
Hugo Lafayette Black, James Francis Byrnes, William O. Douglas, Felix Frankfurter, Robert H. Jackson, Frank Murphy (writing for the Court), Stanley Forman Reed, Owen Josephus Roberts, Harlan Fiske Stone

Justices Dissenting
None

Place
Washington, D.C.

Date of Decision
9 March 1942

Decision
Reasoning that the Constitution does not protect some "well defined and narrowly limited" types of speech, the Supreme Court...