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Thornhill v. Alabama

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Case Basics
Docket No.: 
514
Petitioner: 
Thornhill
Respondent: 
Alabama
Decided By: 
Hughes Court (1940-1941)
Opinion: 
310 U.S. 88 (1940)
Argued: 
Thursday, February 29, 1940
Decided: 
Monday, April 22, 1940
Categories: 
labor, freedom of the press, symbolic speech, freedom of speech, criminal, first amendment
Location No location information present.

Cite this page
The Oyez Project, Thornhill v. Alabama , 310 U.S. 88 (1940)
available at: (http://oyez.org/cases/1901-1939/1939/1939_514)
(last visited Monday, January 25, 2010).
Facts of the Case: 

Byron Thornhill joined a picket line that was protesting against his former employer. Section 3448 of Alabama state law made it an offense to picket. Pursuant to the law, Thornhill was arrested and fined $100. Thornhill, a union president, was the only picketer to be arrested and tried under the law.

Question: 

Did the Alabama law violate Thornhill's right to free expression under the First Amendment?

Conclusion: 

In an 8-to-1 decision, the Court held that Section 3448 of the Alabama State Code was facially invalid. The Court held that labor relations were "not matters of mere local or private concern," and that free discussion concerning labor conditions and industrial disputes was "indispensable to the effective and intelligent use of the processes of popular government to shape the destiny of modern industrial society." The Court found that no clear and present danger of destruction of life or property or of breach of the peace was inherent to labor picketing, and thus deserved First Amendment protection.

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