clear and present danger
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 268 U.S. 652 - Gitlow v. People of the State of New York · 1925Most cited · 1,692 citing opinions
the general statement in the Schenck Case that the 'question in every case is whether the words used are used in such circumstances and are of such a nature as to create a clear and present danger that they will bring about the substantive evils' was manifestly intended, as shown by the context, to apply only in cases of this class, and has no application to those like the present, where the legislative body itself has previously determined the danger of substantive evil arising from utterances of a specified character.
How often courts cite the cases defining “clear and present danger”
Court decisions citing the 2 opinions that defined “clear and present danger” — 2,885 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining cases as a whole, not verified uses of the term. The dip in the most recent years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the latest years.
All 2 definitions, chronological · 1925–1947
The vehemence of the language used is not alone the measure of the power to punish for contempt. The fires which it kindles must constitute an imminent, not merely a likely, threat to the administration of justice. The danger must not be remote or even probable; it must immediately imperil.