In its decision, Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire, 315 U.S. 568 (1942), the Supreme Court of the United States articulated the fighting words doctrine, a limitation of the First Amendment's guarantee of freedom of speech.
Chaplinsky, a Jehovah's Witness, had said to a New Hampshire town marshall who was attempting to prevent him from preaching: "You are a God-damned racketeer" and "a damned Fascist" and was arrested. The Court upheld the arrest and stated:
- "There are certain well-defined and narrowly limited classes of speech, the prevention and punishment of which have never been thought to raise any constitutional problem. These include the lewd and obscene, the profane, the libelous, and the insulting or "fighting" words those which by their very utterance inflict injury or tend to incite an immediate breach of the peace. It has been well observed that such utterances are no essential part of any exposition of ideas, and are of such slight social value as a step to truth that any benefit that may be derived from them is clearly outweighed by the social interest in order and morality."
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