August 15, 2017 - Another case involving the Klan and public free speech was a decision about cross-burning, Virginia v. Black from 2003. The Court decided the constitutionality of a Virginia law that banned cross-burning; one of the two incidents in the case involved a cross-burning at a Klan rally led by Barry ...

September 12, 2026 - Clarence Brandenburg, a Ku Klux ... cover a KKK rally that would take place in Hamilton County in the summer of 1964. Portions of the rally were filmed, showing several men in robes and hoods, some carrying firearms, first burning a cross and then making speeches...

June 2, 2025 - Often simply called by its acronym, the KKK was founded as a fraternal organization in the South after the Civil War. Some Supreme Court decisions have allowed prosecution of the Klan for terrorist activity. Other rulings have affirmed the First Amendment speech rights of KKK members, using a test of whether the speech is such that it incites violence.

A state may not forbid speech advocating the use of force or unlawful conduct unless this advocacy is directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or produce such action. ... A Ku Klux Klan leader in Ohio, Clarence Brandenburg, asked a Cincinnati reporter to cover a KKK rally in Hamilton County for his television station.

December 8, 2025 - Consequently, communities must grapple with KKK demonstrations, balancing their right to conduct free speech against the need to maintain public safety and decorum. One example of this balance is the infamous KKK rally in Charlottesville in 2017. While the protest drew attention and criticism, ...

April 15, 2026 - The modern standard for when the government can punish inflammatory speech comes from the 1969 case Brandenburg v. Ohio. Clarence Brandenburg, an Ohio KKK leader, was filmed at a rally surrounded by armed, hooded men burning a cross.

January 26, 2023 - So many lawyers representing defendants convicted for engaging in such protests had picked up those hints that when the Justices ruled on Brandenburg, the docket included four other free speech cases.

May 5, 2026 - This case underlines the tension between protecting civil liberties and ensuring public safety, particularly during elections. See also: Can Your Bank Legally Refuse to Close Your Account? Additionally, *NAACP v. Claiborne Hardware Co.* (1982) was a landmark decision relating to organized protests, ...

A case in which the Court held that a Ku Klux Klan's First Amendment rights were violated by an Ohio criminal syndicalism law.

March 20, 2018 - Brandenburg, who was a leader in the Ku Klux Klan, made a speech at a rally that advocated violence. As a result of the speech, Brandenburg was criminally charged under the Ohio Criminal Syndicalism Act.

September 13, 2005 - Under well-established First Amendment law, organizations such as the Klan have a right to speak, and public officials are obligated allow that speech to go forward on public property.

February 12, 2021 - The former president's defense lawyers have cited the Supreme Court's 1969 decision in Brandenburg v. Ohio, which upheld the right of Klan leader Clarence Brandenburg to spew racist, antisemitic rhetoric as long as it didn't incite or produce ...

The Brandenburg test was established in Brandenburg v. Ohio, 395 U.S. 444 (1969), to define when speech intendending to advocate illegal action can be restricted under the First Amendment.

In 1%9, in an ACLU case involving a KKK · leader who had urged at a rally in Hamilton · County, Ohio, that Black Americans be sent · back to Africa, the United States Supreme · Court unanimously established the princi- ple that speech may not be restrained or ·

March 24, 2026 - In the summer of 1964, Clarence Brandenburg, a leader in the Ku Klux Klan, gave a speech at a Klan rally. Because of this speech — which included remarks accusing the United States government of suppressing the “Caucasian race” — he ...

The Brandenburg v. Ohio case concerned Ku Klux Klan member Clarence Brandenburg. Brandenburg delivered a speech in Hamilton County, Ohio, where he called for “revengeance” [sic] against Jews and African Americans.

June 20, 2024 - In 1977, a group of neo-Nazis announced their intention to march through Skokie, Illinois, where one out of every six Jewish residents had survived the Holocaust or was directly related to a survivor. The Chicago suburb denied permission for the neo-Nazis' gathering, but the ACLU accepted the case and won, upholding neo-Nazis' right to free speech.

September 7, 2012 - In 1%9, in an ACLU case involving a KKK · leader who had urged at a rally in Hamilton · County, Ohio, that Black Americans be sent · back to Africa, the United States Supreme · Court unanimously established the princi- ple that speech may not be restrained or ·

July 16, 2007 - The District Court also held that the law draws unreasonable content-based distinctions between permitted and prohibited expression, and that the NYPD’s selective enforcement of Penal Law 240.35 (4) violates the “equal access” principles of the First Amendment. On Jan. 20, 2004, the Second Circuit reversed the District Court. In doing so, the Second Circuit reasoned that the First Amendment right of anonymous speech does not embrace a right to conceal one’s appearance in a public demonstration.