Patterson v. Colorado, 205 U.S. 454 (1907), was a First Amendment case. Before 1919, the primary legal test used in the United States to determine if speech could be criminalized was the bad tendency test.Rabban, pp 132–134, 190–199. Rooted in English common law, the test permitted speech to be outlawed if it had a tendency to harm public welfare. One of the earliest cases the Supreme Court heard addressing punishment after material was published was 1907's Patterson v. Colorado in which the Court used the bad tendency test to uphold contempt charges against a newspaper publisher who accused Colorado judges of acting on behalf of local utility companies.Before 1907, most free speech issues addressed prior restraint rather than punishment after speaking.
See also List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 205
Footnotes
References Rabban, David, Free Speech in Its Forgotten Years, Cambridge University Press, 1999,
External links