Gregory v. Chicago
| Gregory v. Chicago | |
|---|---|
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| Argued December 10, 1968 Decided March 10, 1969 |
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| 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
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| Prior history | Certiorari to the Supreme Court of Illinois |
| Holding | |
| Convictions of Gregory and others were reversed for lack of evidence and improper instructions to the jury. | |
| Court membership | |
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| Case opinions | |
| Majority | Warren, joined unanimously |
| 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.
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 protesters 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 subsequently convicted by a jury, of violating Chicago's disorderly conduct ordinance. The protesters appealed to the Illinois Supreme Court (39 Ill. 2d 47, 233 N. E. 2d 422 (1968)). That court upheld their conviction, holding that the protesters' refusal to obey the police order justified the convictions. Aided by the ACLU, the protesters appealed to the US Supreme Court.
The US Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision, overturned the conviction for several reasons:
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."
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