Stanley Forman Reed,
Beauharnais v. Illinois — Dissent
“ Does the Bill of Rights permit Illinois to forbid any reflection on the virtue of racial or religious classes which a jury or a judge may think exposes them to derision or obloquy, words themselves of quite uncertain meaning as used in the statute? ”
Stanley Forman Reed,
Beauharnais v. Illinois — Dissent
“ What is under discussion is whether the conviction of Beauharnais on a general charge of violation of the statute can stand when the statute contains without statutory or judicial definition words of such ambiguous meaning and uncertain connotation as 'virtue,' 'derision,' or 'obloquy.' The Court does not attempt to speak specifically as to that contention.The importance of a definite ruling on that point is manifest. Racial, religious, and political biases and prejudices lead to charge and countercharge, acrimony and bitterness. ”
Stanley Forman Reed,
Beauharnais v. Illinois — Dissent
“ In carrying out its obligation to conform state legal administration to the 'fundamental principles of liberty and justice' imposed on the states by the Fourteenth Amendment, [4] this Court has steadily affirmed that the general principle against abridgment of free speech, protected by the First Amendment, is included in the command of the Fourteenth. [5] So important to a constitutional democracy is the right of discussion that any challenge to legislative abridgment of those privileges of a free people calls for careful judicial appraisal. ”
