Walter H. Pollak and Walter Nelles, both of New York City, for plaintiff in error.If the publication of this document had been laid as an attempt to induce an uprising against government at once and not at some indefinite time in the future it would have presented a different question. Decided June 8, 1925. By word of mouth or writing advocates, advises or teaches the duty, necessity or propriety of overthrowing or overturning organized government by force or violence, or by assassination of the executive head or of any of the executive officials of government, or by any unlawful means; or,The indictment was in two counts. It was not necessary, within the meaning of the statute, that the defendant should have advocated 'some definite or immediate act or acts' of force, violence or unlawfulness. Justice SANFORD delivered the opinion of the Court.And both the Appellate Division and the Court of Appeals held the statute constitutional. It was so construed and applied by the trial judge, who specifically charged the jury that:'Manifestly, the legislature has authority to forbid the advocacy of a doctrine designed and intended to overthrow the government without waiting until there is a present and imminent danger of the success of the plan advocated. 4. answers left.
Prints, publishes, edits, issues or knowingly circulates, sells, distributes or publicly displays any book, paper, document, or written or printed matter in any form, containing or advocating, advising or teaching the doctrine that organized government should be overthrown by force, violence or any unlawful means, * * *The Manifesto, plainly, is neither the statement of abstract doctrine nor, as suggested by counsel, mere prediction that industrial disturbances and revolutionary mass strikes will result spontaneously in an inevitable process of evolution in the economic system. It is only necessary to say that, applying the general rules already stated, we find that none of them involved any invasion of the constitutional rights of the defendant. It was admitted that the defendant signed a card subscribing to the Manifesto and Program of the Left Wing, which all applicants were required to sign before being admitted to membership; that he went to different parts of the State to speak to branches of the Socialist Party about the principles of the Left Wing and advocated their adoption; and that he was responsible for the Manifesto as it appeared, that 'he knew of the publication, in a general way and he knew of its publication afterwards, and is responsible for the circulation. * * * Moderate Socialism affirms that the bourgeois, democratic parliamentary state is the necessary basis for the introduction of Socialism. Name of the Case. 423, 431, 64 N. E. 175, 58 L. R. A. 'This is not the expression of philosophical abstraction, the mere prediction of future events; it is the language of direct incitement.And finding, for the reasons stated, that the statute is not in itself unconstitutional, and that it has not been applied in the present case in derogation of any constitutional right, the judgment of the Court of Appeals isPages 149, 150 (136 N. E. 324).That a State in the exercise of its police power may punish those who abuse this freedom by utterances inimical to the public welfare, tending to corrupt public morals, incite to crime, or disturb the public peace, is not open to question. The United States Supreme Court granted certiorari. The Court upheld Gitlow's conviction on the basis that the government may suppress or punish speech that directly advocates the unlawful overthrow of the government and it upheld the constitutionality of the state statute at issue, which made it a crime to advocate the duty, need, or appropriateness of overthrowing government by force or violence.The Court had to consider whether it could review a challenge to a state law on the basis that it violated the federal constitution.
Laws 1909, c. 40. 268 U.S. 652, 45 S. Ct. 625, 69 L. Ed. * * * The class struggle is the heart of Socialism. The advocacy need not be addressed to specific persons.