Case one: Beauharnais V.S Illinois: Background 

Joseph Beauharnais was a man from Illinois, who distributed leaflets promoting anti-African American sentiment. With these leaflets he "called whites to unite against the violence perpetrated by African Americans". Beauharnais was arrested for these leaflets.  

Defense:

Beauharnais's defense claimed that his distribution of leaflets was protected under the First Amendment right to free speech. 

 Persecution: 

Beauharnais was persecuted by the state of Illinois.  The persecution countered the defense's claim of free speech by citing defamation, specifically criminal libel. Criminal libel is the persecution of a defaming statement and is treated like a criminal offense. In this case, the statement was not harmful towards one person, but an entire race. This argument allowed the persecution to win this case.  

Connection to other cases: 

Libel law- protection from damaging, false statements published in a fixed medium (writing, print, online, pictures)- has been used to decide many other famous cases. One example is New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, which occurred during the Civil rights movement. The reason for the case was that The New York Times published an article about Martin Luther King Jr containing misinformation about him. L.B. Sullivan, a city commissioner in Alabama, sued Times for this misinformation under libel law, and won.