Gregory v. City of Chicago

Gregory v. Chicago
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued December 10, 1968 Decided March 10, 1969
Full case name	Dick Gregory, et al. v. City of Chicago
Citations	394 U.S. 111 (more) 89 S. Ct. 946; 22 L. Ed. 2d 134; 1969 U.S. LEXIS 2295
Prior history	Certiorari to the Supreme Court of Illinois
Holding
The Court overturned the disorderly conduct charges against Dick Gregory and others for peaceful demonstrations in Chicago.
Court membership
Chief Justice Earl Warren Associate Justices Hugo Black · William O. Douglas John M. Harlan II · William J. Brennan, Jr. Potter Stewart · Byron White Abe Fortas · Thurgood Marshall
Case opinions
Majority	Warren, joined by unanimous
Concurrence	Black, joined by Douglas
Concurrence	Harlan
Laws applied
U.S. Const. amends. I, XIV

Gregory v. Chicago, 394 U.S. 111 (1969), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court overturned the disorderly conduct charges against Dick Gregory and others for peaceful demonstrations in Chicago.

Background

Social activists, including comedian Dick Gregory, protested against school segregation in Chicago, Illinois in 1969. Twelve years earlier, in Brown v. Board of Education, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled school segregation unconstitutional. The marchers marched from Chicago's city hall to the mayor's residence. After concluding the march, bystanders began to act unruly, and police asked the protesters to disperse. The protesters did not disperse and were consequently arrested and convicted for demonstrating. The protesters appealed to the Illinois Supreme Court (39 Ill. 2d 47, 233 N. E. 2d 422 (1968)) but that court upheld their conviction. Aided by the ACLU, the protesters appealed to US Supreme Court.

Opinion of the Court

The US Supreme Court, in an unanimous decision, overturned the conviction for several reasons:

• "Petitioners were denied due process since there was no evidentiary support for their convictions"
• "The convictions were for demonstrating, not for refusing to obey police orders."
• "The trial judge's charge allowed the jury to convict for acts protected by the First Amendment. Stromberg v. California"

Justice Hugo Black, in a concurring opinion, argued that arresting demonstrators as a consequence of unruly behavior of bystanders would amount to a "heckler's veto."

See also

• List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 394
• Stromberg v. California, 283 U.S. 359

External links

• Text of the decision from FindLaw