Younger v. Harris

401 U.S. 37 (1971)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

P was indicted in a California state court, charged with violation of the California Penal Code §§ 11400 and 11401, known as the California Criminal Syndicalism Act. P then filed a complaint in the Federal District Court, asking that court to enjoin D from prosecuting him, and alleging that the prosecution and even the presence of the Act inhibited him in the exercise of his rights of free speech and press, rights guaranteed him by the First and Fourteenth Amendments. A number of parties intervened claiming that the prosecution of P would inhibit them as members of the Progressive Labor Party from peacefully advocating the program of their party, which was to replace capitalism with socialism and to abolish the profit system of production in this country. Appellee Farrell Broslawsky, an instructor in history at Los Angeles Valley College, also intervened claiming that the prosecution of P made him uncertain as to whether he could teach about the doctrines of Karl Marx or read from the Communist Manifesto as part of his class work. Each party made a claim of immediate and irreparable injury. A three-judge Federal District Court, held the Syndicalism Act was void for vagueness and overbreadth in violation of the First and Fourteenth Amendments, and accordingly restrained D from 'further prosecution of the currently pending action against plaintiff Harris for alleged violation of the Act.' D appealed.