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Father Arthur Terminiello, in an auditorium in Chicago, delivered a vitriolic speech in which he criticized various political and racial groups and viciously condemned the protesting crowd that had gathered outside the auditorium.
Petitioner after jury trial was found guilty of disorderly conduct in violation of a city ordinance of Chicago 1 and fined. The case grew out of an address he delivered in an auditorium in Chicago under the auspices of the Christian Veterans of America. The meeting commanded considerable public attention.
1 sty 2009 · In Terminiello v. Chicago, 337 U.S. 1 (1949), the Supreme Court overturned on First Amendment grounds a disorderly conduct conviction against a suspended Catholic priest for making inflammatory public comments.
Arthur Terminiello was a controversial figure and a provocative speaker. He was a strong critic of the New Deal. He opposed U.S. entry into World War II. And his speeches often traded in vitriolic rhetoric, conspiracy theories, and antisemitism. In 1946, he spoke at an auditorium in Chicago.
While Terminiello, a priest, was addressing a sympathetic audience inside a packed auditorium, a hostile crowd, which denounced him as anti-Semitic and pro-Fascist, gathered outside. Fearing violence, police arrested him for disorderly conduct.
CHICAGO 337 U.S. 1 (1949) Terminiello was convicted of disorderly conduct after a meeting in a private hall outside of which a thousand persons violently protested his anti-Semitic, antiblack, and anticommunist harangue.
Father Arthur Terminiello (defendant) gave a controversial speech at a Chicago auditorium denouncing alleged communists in the United States. Angry protesters assembled outside. During the speech, Terminiello criticized the protestors, as well as certain racial and political groups.
