Court Opinion

ID: 9425695
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:15:28.893743+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:16:20.449649
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Douglas,
concurring in the judgment.
I have joined Part II of Mr. Justice Marshall’s opinion because I think it makes abundantly clear that foremost among the Bill of Rights of prisoners in this country, whether under state or federal detention, is the First Amendment. Prisoners are still “persons” entitled to all constitutional rights unless their liberty has been constitutionally curtailed by procedures that satisfy all of the requirements of due process.
While Mr. Chief Justice Hughes in Stromberg v. California, 283 U. S. 359, stated that the First Amendment was applicable to the States by reason of .the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth, it has become customary, to *429rest on the broader foundation of the entire Fourteenth Amendment. Free speech and préss within the meaning of the.First Amendment are, in my judgment, among the pre-eminent privileges and immunities of all citizens.