Cohen v. California

Cohen extended the boundaries of First Amendment protection for speech which is potentially provocative or obscene.

Paul Robert Cohen was arrested in the Los Angeles County Courthouse, where he was roaming the corridors while wearing a jacket with "F*** the Draft" emblazoned across the back. Although he was making no noise at the time of his arrest, he was convicted under a state statute outlawing willful and malicious disturbance of the peace and sentenced to 30 days in jail. Although Cohen testified that he wore the jacket with full knowledge of what it said, he also stated that he did so to express the depth of his feeling about the war in Vietnam. Citing his First Amendment guarantee of free speech, he appealed his conviction to the Court of Appeals of California, then to the State Supreme Court. After both upheld his conviction, he appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Court first determined that Cohen had been convicted solely because of the words on his back, rather than any offensive conduct. In the words of the opinion of the Court, written by Justice Harlan, " . . . the only `conduct' which the State sought to punish is the fact of the communication." The Court next had to ascertain whether or not these words--in the context in which they had received their expression--fell under any of the exceptions to First Amendment protection. Harlan conceded that while the expletive Cohen used may have been vulgar, it was not legally obscene. Neither did it constitute "fighting words" intended to incite a violent response--while the phrase might have been provocative, it was not aimed at anyone in particular.