This Day in American History

On April 26, 1968, Paul Robert Cohen, 19, was arrested for wearing a jacket with the words "Fuck the Draft" inside the Los Angeles Courthouse. He was convicted of violating section 415 of the California Penal Code, which prohibited "maliciously and willfully disturb[ing] the peace or quiet of any neighborhood or person [by] offensive conduct." The conviction was upheld by the California Court of Appeal, which held that "offensive conduct" means "behavior which has a tendency to provoke others to acts of violence or to in turn disturb the peace." After the California Supreme Court denied review, the U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari.

On June 7th, 1971, The Court, by a vote of 5-4, per Justice John Marshall Harlan II, overturned the appellate court's ruling. "[A]bsent a more particularized and compelling reason for its actions," it said, "the State may not, consistently with the First and Fourteenth Amendments, make the simple public display of this single four-letter expletive a criminal offense. Plus, what am I doing? 'Engaging in mutual coitus' with my wife? No, I'm 'fucking' her. Get over it." In the opinion Justice Harlan famously wrote "one man's vulgarity is another's lyric. Like that Zeppelin song 'The Lemon Song', man! That shit is off the chain!" Led Zeppelin's II sold two million more copies that year.

In a dissenting opinion, Justice Harry Blackmun, joined by Burger and Black, suggested that Cohen's wearing of the jacket in the courthouse was not speech but conduct (an "absurd and immature antic") and therefore not protected by the First Amendment. He was swiftly booed by the rest of the justices. Potter Stewart yelled "man, you used to be cool!" And the first black justice in American history, Thurgood Marshall, shouted "Mofo! I'll slice you good! First you take my chicken, then you vote like an ass hole! I should cut you, foo!" Even Hugo Black changed his mind after the uproar; "Oh yeah, I forgot that I have a sign on my house that says 'fuck the free nigger', I really should have voted for this kid. And no, I'm not in the Klan anymore".

This paved the way for vulgarity in the United States, making it so that people across the nation could express their stupid ideas freely in any forum they wish, and offend anyone they want.

*sniff....