Brown v. Socialist Workers '74 Campaign Committee

Brown v. Socialist Workers '74 Campaign Committee, 459 U.S. 87 (1982), was a United States Supreme Court case that dealt with political speech, and whether a state could require a minor political party to disclose its membership, expenditures, and contributors.

Brown v. Socialist Workers '74 Campaign Committee
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued October 4, 1982 Decided December 8, 1982
Full case name	Brown, et al. v. Socialist Workers '74 Campaign Committee (Ohio), et al.
Docket no.	81-776
Citations	459 U.S. 87 (more) 103 S. Ct. 416; 74 L. Ed. 2d 250; 1982 U.S. LEXIS 169
Argument	Oral argument
Opinion announcement	Opinion announcement
Case history
Prior	Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio
Holding
States cannot require a minor political party to disclose its membership or associates, when doing so would jeopardize the safety of those persons.
Court membership
Chief Justice Warren E. Burger Associate Justices William J. Brennan Jr. · Byron White Thurgood Marshall · Harry Blackmun Lewis F. Powell Jr. · William Rehnquist John P. Stevens · Sandra Day O'Connor
Case opinions
Majority	Marshall, joined by Burger, Brennan, White, Blackmun (parts I, III, IV), Powell
Concurrence	Blackmun
Concur/dissent	O'Connor, joined by Rehnquist, Stevens
Laws applied
U.S. Const. amend. I

At the time, most states required political parties to disclose their contributions and expenditures; in 1982, the Court ruled that the Socialist Workers Party, a minor party in Ohio, was not required to disclose its contributors or recipients, on the basis of retributive animus and harassment if party functionaries did so.

External links

• Text of Brown v. Socialist Workers '74 Campaign Committee, 459 U.S. 87 (1982) is available from: CourtListener Findlaw Google Scholar Justia Library of Congress Oyez (oral argument audio)