CONSTITUTIONAL LAW - VALIDITY OF CRIMINAL SYNDICALISM STATUTE

The defendant was indicted for assisting in the conduct of a meeting which was called under the auspices of the Community Party, an organization advocating criminal syndicalism. The statute defined criminal syndicalism as "the doctrine which advocates crime, physical violence, sabotage, or any unlawful acts or methods as a means of accomplishing or effecting industrial or political change or revolution," and described a number of offenses, including the presiding at, or the assisting in, the conduct of a meeting of an organization advocating criminal syndicalism as defined in the act. The state court upheld the indictment under a construction of the statute making it apply to a meeting of such organization regardless of whether the doctrine of criminal syndicalism was taught or advocated at the meeting. Held, the statute so construed violated the right of free speech and peaceable assembly guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment.

De Jonge v. State of Oregon, 299 U. S. 353, 57 S. Ct. 255 (1937).