Gitlow v. New York (1925)

In expanding the “clear and present danger” test established in Schenck v. United States (1919), the Court held that states can “punish utterances endangering the foundations of government and threatening its overthrow by unlawful means” because such speech would “present a sufficient danger to the public peace and to the security of the State.”

This case applied protection of free speech to the actions of state governments through the doctrine of incorporation. The Court ruled that freedom of speech and press were “among the fundamental rights and ‘liberties’ protected by the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment from impairment by the states.”