In Terminiello v. City of Chicago, the Supreme Court expanded upon the “fighting words” doctrine from the 1942 case Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire. According to the court, “fighting words” are “those which by their very utterance inflict injury or tend to incite an immediate breach of the peace.”
In this case, Arthur Terminiello, a Catholic priest, delivered a speech to the Christian Veterans of America in which he condemned various racial and political groups. The crowd got out of the hand, and the police were unable to maintain control. As a result, they arrested Terminiello for “breach of peace.”
The Supreme Court reversed the conviction and held that the breach-of-peace statute violated the First Amendment. Justice William O. Douglas said in the decision May 16, 1949, that the “function of free speech … is to invite dispute. It may indeed best serve its high purpose when it induces a condition of unrest, creates dissatisfaction with conditions as they are, or even stirs people to anger.” Douglas noted that there are exceptions to free speech, which include the fighting-words standard that was not applicable in this case.
