Chaplinsky vs. New Hampshire, "Fighting Words"
- Artist/Author/Producer: Chaplinsky
- Confronting Bodies: State of New Hampshire
- Dates of action: 1942
- Location: New Hampshire
- Description of the Art Work
- Exchange of insults on the street. Chaplinsky called members of the
government in Rochester, NH. "goddamned racketeers" and stated that the
"whole government of Rochester are fascists or agents of fascists."
- Description of incident
- "Under NH.'s Offensive Conduct law (chap. 378, para. 2 of the NH. Public
Laws) it is illegal for anyone to address another person with 'any
offensive, derisive or annoying word to anyone who is lawfully in any
street or public place... or to call him by an offensive or derisive
name.'"
The court said that some categories of speech are simply "no
essential part of any exposition of ideas, and are of such slight social
value as a step to truth that any benefit that may be derived from them
is clearly outweighed by the social interest in order in morality."
- Results of incident
- The case went to the Supreme Court which declared that the case did not
fall under the category of "fighting words" and was not protected by the
laws pertaining to free speech. The court further stated that "resort to
epithets or personal abuse is not in any proper sense a communication of
information or opinion safeguarded by the Constitution" and defined the
word "offensive" in this context not in terms of what a particular
addressee thinks... ("but... what men of common intelligence would
understand would be words likely to cause an average addressee to
fight.")
Source: The Encyclopedia of Censorship, J. Green, Facts on File, '93