R.A.V. v. City of St. Paul

R.A.V. v. City of St. Paul, 505 U.S. 377 (1992), is a case of the United States Supreme Court that unanimously struck down St. Paul's Bias-Motivated Crime Ordinance and reversed the conviction of a teenager, referred to in court documents only as R.A.V., for burning a cross on the lawn of an African-American family since the ordinance was held to violate the First Amendment's protection of freedom of speech.^[1] The Court reasoned that an ordinance like this constitutes "viewpoint discrimination" which may have the effect of driving certain ideas from the marketplace of ideas.^[2]

R.A.V. v. City of St. Paul

R.A.V., Petitioner v. City of St. Paul, Minnesota

90-7675

505 U.S. 377 (more)

112 S. Ct. 2538; 120 L. Ed. 2d 305; 1992 U.S. LEXIS 3863; 60 U.S.L.W. 4667; 92 Cal. Daily Op. Service 5299; 92 Daily Journal DAR 8395; 6 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. S 479

Oral argument

Statute upheld as constitutional and charges reinstated, 464 N.W.2d 507 (Minn. 1991)

Scalia, joined by Rehnquist, Kennedy, Souter, Thomas

White (in judgment), joined by Blackmun, O'Connor; Stevens (except Part I-A)

Blackmun (in judgment)

Stevens (in judgment), joined by White, Blackmun (Part I)

Limitation[edit]

In Virginia v. Black (2003), the United States Supreme Court deemed constitutional part of a Virginia statute outlawing the public burning of a cross if done with an intent to intimidate, noting that such expression "has a long and pernicious history as a signal of impending violence."^[24]

List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 505

List of United States Supreme Court cases

Lists of United States Supreme Court cases by volume

List of United States Supreme Court cases by the Rehnquist Court

Amar, Akhil Reed (1992). . Faculty Scholarship Series (Paper 1039): 124–61.

"The Case of the Missing Amendments: R.A.V. v. City of St. Paul"

(1997). Excitable Speech: A Politics of the Performative. New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-91588-0.

Butler, Judith

Crowley, Andrea L. (1993). . Boston College Law Review. 34 (4): 771–801.

"R.A.V v. City of St. Paul: How the Supreme Court Missed the Writing on the Wall"

Kagan, Elena (1992). "The Changing Faces of First Amendment Neutrality: R.A.V. v St. Paul, Rust v Sullivan, and the Problem of Content-Based Underinclusion". The Supreme Court Review. 1992 (1992): 29–77. :10.1086/scr.1992.3109667. JSTOR 3109667. S2CID 140422540.

doi

Levin, Brian (2002). "From Slavery to Hate Crime Laws: The Emergence of Race and Status-Based Protection in American Criminal Law". Journal of Social Issues. 58 (2): 227–45. :10.1111/1540-4560.00258.

doi

Matsuda, Mari J.; Lawrence, Charles R.; Delgado, Richard; Crenshaw, Kimberle W. (1993). . Boulder, CO: Westview Press. ISBN 0-8133-8428-1.

Words That Wound: Critical Race Theory, Assaultive Speech, and the First Amendment

(2005), "Hate crimes, literature, and speech", in Frey, R.G.; Heath Wellman, Christopher (eds.), A companion to applied ethics, Blackwell Companions to Philosophy, Oxford, UK Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishing, pp. 89–101, doi:10.1002/9780470996621.ch11, ISBN 9781405133456.

Sumner, L.W.

Text of R.A.V. v. City of St. Paul, U.S. 377 (1992) is available from: Cornell CourtListener Findlaw Google Scholar Justia Library of Congress Oyez (oral argument audio)

R.A.V. v. City of St. Paul