Rehearing Denied June 13, 1949.

See 337 U.S. 934. [ Terminiello v. City of Chicago 337 U.S. 1 (1949) ][337 U.S. 1, 2]

Mr. Albert W. Dilling, of Chicago, Ill., for petitioner.

Mr. L. Louis Karton, of Chicago, Ill., for respondent.

Mr. Justice DOUGLAS delivered the opinion of the Court.

Petitioner after jury trial was found guilty of disorderly conduct in violation of a city ordinance of Chicago1 and fined. The case grew out of an address he delivered in an auditorium in Chicago under the auspices of the [337 U.S. 1, 3] Christian Veterans of America. The meeting commanded considerable public attention. The auditorium was filled to capacity with over eight hundred persons present. Others were turned away. Outside of the auditorium a crowd o about one thousand persons gathered to protest against the meeting. A cordon of policemen was assigned to the meeting to maintain order; but they were not able to prevent several disturbances. The crowd outside was angry and turbulent.

Petitioner in his speech condemned the conduct of the crowd outside and vigorously, if not viciously, criticized various political and racial groups whose activities he denounced as inimical to the nations welfare.

The trial court charged that breach of the peace consists of any misbehavior which violates the public peace and decorum; and that the misbehavior may constitute a breach of the peace if it stirs the public to anger, invites dispute, brings about a condition of unrest, or creates a disturbance, or if it molests the inhabitants in the enjoyment of peace and quiet by arousing alarm. Petitioner did not take exception to that instruction. But he maintained at all times that the ordinance as applied to his conduct violated his right of free speech under the Federal Constitution, U.S.Const. Amend. 1. The judgment of conviction was affirmed by the Illinois Appellate Court, 332 Ill.App. 17, 74 N.E.2d 45, and by the Illinois Supreme Court. 396 Ill. 41, 71 N.E.2d 2, 400 Ill. 23, 79 N.E.2d 39. The case is here on a petition for certiorari which we granted because of the importance of the question presented.

The argument here has been focused on the issue of whether the content of petitioners speech was composed of derisive, fighting words, which carried it outside the scope of the constitutional guarantees. See Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire, 315 U.S. 568; Cantwell v. Connecticut, 310 U.S. 296, 310, 906, 128 A.L.R. 1352. We do not reach that question, for there is a preliminary question that is dispositive of the case. [337 U.S. 1, 4] As we have noted, the statutory words breach of the peace were defined in instructions to the jury to include speech which stirs the public to anger, invites dispute, brings about a condition or unrest, or creates a disturbance. * * * That construction of the ordinance is a ruling on a question of state law that is as binding on us as though the precise words had been written into the ordinance. See Hebert v. Louisiana, 272 U.S. 312, 317, 104, 48 A.L.R. 1102; Winters v. New York, 333 U.S. 507, 514, 669.

The vitality of civil and political institutions in our society depends on free discussion. As Chief Justice Hughes wrote in De Jonge v. Oregon, 299 U.S. 353, 365, 260, it is only through free debate and free exchange of ideas that government remains responsive to the will of the people and peaceful change is effected. The right to speak freely and to promote diversity of ideas and programs is therefore one of the chief distinctions that sets us apart from totalitarian regimes.

Accordingly a function of free speech under our system of government is to invite dispute. It may indeed best serve its high purpose when it induces a condition of unrest, creates dissatisfaction with conditions as they are, or even stirs people to anger. Speech is often provocative and challenging. It may stri