Beauharnais v. Illinois

Decided April 28, 1952. Felix Frankfurter delivered the opinion of the Court.

Docket 118 · 343 U.S. 250 (1952) · Cited 480 times

We don’t yet publish a summary of this opinion — read the official text below for the Court’s holding and reasoning.

How the Justices voted

Decided 5–4.

“Concurring” means agreeing with the outcome; any split shown is the Court’s judgment, not each Justice’s reasoning. Source: the Supreme Court Database (Spaeth et al.), Washington University.

Precedents cited

Supreme Court decisions this opinion relies on, ordered by how often it cites each. Cases in our collection link through; others are named.

• Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire · 315 U.S. 568 (1942)
• Thornhill v. Alabama · 310 U.S. 88 (1940)
• Winters v. New York · 333 U.S. 507 (1948)
• Gitlow v. New York · 268 U.S. 652 (1925)
• Cantwell v. Connecticut · 310 U.S. 296 (1940)
• Palko v. Connecticut · 302 U.S. 319 (1937)
• Near v. Minnesota Ex Rel. Olson · 283 U.S. 697 (1931)
• Stromberg v. California · 283 U.S. 359 (1931)
• Thomas v. Collins · 323 U.S. 516 (1945)
• Terminiello v. Chicago · 337 U.S. 1 (1949)
• Dennis v. United States · 341 U.S. 494 (1951)
• Pennekamp v. Florida · 328 U.S. 331 (1946)
• West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette · 319 U.S. 624 (1943)
• Schenck v. United States · 249 U.S. 47 (1919)
• American Communications Assn. v. Douds · 339 U.S. 382 (1950)
• Grosjean v. American Press Co. · 297 U.S. 233 (1936)
• Abrams v. United States · 250 U.S. 616 (1919)
• Herndon v. Lowry · 301 U.S. 242 (1937)
• Rochin v. California · 342 U.S. 165 (1952)
• Connally v. General Construction Co. · 269 U.S. 385 (1926)
• Nebbia v. New York · 291 U.S. 502 (1934)
• Schneider v. State (Town of Irvington) · 308 U.S. 147 (1939)
• Lovell v. City of Griffin · 303 U.S. 444 (1938)
• Murdock v. Pennsylvania · 319 U.S. 105 (1943)
• Lochner v. New York · 198 U.S. 45 (1905)
• Kovacs v. Cooper · 336 U.S. 77 (1949)
• Whitney v. California · 274 U.S. 357 (1927)
• Cox v. New Hampshire · 312 U.S. 569 (1941)
• Williams v. North Carolina · 317 U.S. 287 (1943)
• West Coast Hotel Co. v. Parrish · 300 U.S. 379 (1937)

Cited by

Later Supreme Court opinions in our collection that cite this case.

• Roth v. United States · 354 U.S. 476 (1957)
• Konigsberg v. State Bar of Cal. · 366 U.S. 36 (1961)
• Garrison v. Louisiana · 379 U.S. 64 (1964)
• New York Times Co. v. Sullivan · 376 U.S. 254 (1964)
• R. A. v. v. City of St. Paul · 505 U.S. 377 (1992)
• Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc. · 418 U.S. 323 (1974)
• Curtis Publishing Co. v. Butts · 388 U.S. 130 (1967)
• Paris Adult Theatre I v. Slaton · 413 U.S. 49 (1973)
• Pittsburgh Press Co. v. Pittsburgh Commission on Human Relations · 413 U.S. 376 (1973)
• Smith v. California · 361 U.S. 147 (1959)
• A Book Named \John Cleland's Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure\" v. Attorney General of Massachusetts" · 383 U.S. 413 (1966)
• A Quantity of Copies of Books v. Kansas · 378 U.S. 205 (1964)
• Gideon v. Wainwright · 372 U.S. 335 (1963)
• Buckley v. Valeo · 424 U.S. 1 (1976)
• Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corp. v. Public Service Commission · 447 U.S. 557 (1980)
• New York v. Ferber · 458 U.S. 747 (1982)
• Bose Corp. v. Consumers Union of United States, Inc. · 466 U.S. 485 (1984)
• Stanley v. Georgia · 394 U.S. 557 (1969)
• Whalen v. Roe · 429 U.S. 589 (1977)
• First Nat. Bank of Boston v. Bellotti · 435 U.S. 765 (1978)
• United States v. Stevens · 559 U.S. 460 (2010)
• Ginsberg v. New York · 390 U.S. 629 (1968)
• New York Times Co. v. United States · 403 U.S. 713 (1971)
• Rosenblatt v. Baer · 383 U.S. 75 (1966)
• Herbert v. Lando · 441 U.S. 153 (1979)
• Time, Inc. v. Hill · 385 U.S. 374 (1967)
• Kedroff v. Saint Nicholas Cathedral of the Russian Orthodox Church in North America · 344 U.S. 94 (1952)
• Time, Inc. v. Firestone · 424 U.S. 448 (1976)
• Morey v. Doud · 354 U.S. 457 (1957)
• United States v. Alvarez · 567 U.S. 709 (2012)

Official text

Read the official opinion (U.S. Reports, govinfo.gov)

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Source: the U.S. Reports via govinfo.gov; authoring Justice and vote lineup from the Supreme Court Database (Washington University). Citation count from the Free Law Project’s CourtListener bulk data. Data last verified 2026-07-03. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).