Case Citator › Whitney v. California

Whitney v. California

Is it still good law? What later courts have actually done to this case.

Overruled
Court
Supreme Court of the United States
Citation
274 U.S. 357
Decided
Confirmed treatments
1
Flagged citations read
56 of 56
Citing cases (total)
56
Treatment dates
1969
Overruled
A reviewed court has overruled this case. Whitney v. California was overruled by Brandenburg v. Ohio. The Supreme Court rejected Whitney's approval of punishing abstract advocacy of unlawful violence and required advocacy directed to, and likely to produce, imminent lawless action.
More on how this was screened

Justice Brandeis's separate concurrence is still quoted, but it was not the Court's holding. All 56 flagged citations have been read; the confirmed overruling is listed below.

Every treatment on this page is written from the citing opinion itself, with a verbatim quote, never copied from a commercial citator. A citation flagged by our screen but not shown here was read and found not to weaken this case.

56 later cases cite Whitney v. California; 56 of those citations sat close to treatment language and were flagged for reading, and all of them have been read. Citations that did not sit near treatment language were not flagged and were not read one by one, so a court that weakened this case without using any of that language would not appear here.

Relying on Whitney v. California?

This page shows what later courts did to it. Ask about your specific facts and see whether it still carries your argument, with citations you can check.

Treatments

Overruled

  • The Supreme Court expressly overruled Whitney's approval of criminal punishment for mere advocacy of violence.

    Brandenburg v. Ohio · Supreme Court of the United States · filed

    The contrary teaching of Whitney v. California, supra, cannot be supported, and that decision is therefore overruled.
    Read the full opinion on CourtListener →

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