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In the summer of 1929, Yetta Stromberg and several of her coworkers were arrested; they were teachers at the Pioneer Summer Camp. The San Bernardino County Sheriff was compelled to search the camp after intel from the Better American Federation (BAF)- an organization that focused on ridding California of any opposition to the government. During their investigation they discovered a red flag at the camp.
In 1919 California enacted a statute that made it illegal to publicly display a red flag. This was during a time of great tension throughout the world: Communism was threatening to overthrow the Russian government and America feared the same situation. Several U.S. states passed laws to stifle Communism.
Yetta Stromberg and her colleagues were arrested in violation of California Penal Code 403a. As it turns out, she was a member of the Young Communist League. In addition to the red flag, Stromberg also had literature about armed uprisings.
She was found guilty in the state courts and appealed it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
In the spring of 1931, the Hughes' Court ruled 7-2 in favor of Stromberg. California's red flag law was deemed unconstitutional because, "it violated the liberty of Yetta Stromberg as protected under the Fourteenth Amendment, which banned the states from denying any citizen the right to life, liberty, or property without due process" (Glencoe).
In the majority opinion written by Chief Justice Hughes, he explained that California's statute's first clause opposed the Due Process Clause. It directly violated the right to free speech that the Fourteenth Amendment is intended to protect.
Furthermore, the Court ruled that the law was too vague. Hughes said that a law prohibiting peaceful opposition to government was, "repugnant to the guarantee of liberty contained in the Fourteenth Amendment."
Stromberg's attorneys argued that she was protected under the first amendment because her communism affiliation caused no "clear and present" danger. They further defended that the red flag was a symbol for a legally recognized political party.
The constitutional issue at hand in the Stromberg case was whether or not California had infringed on the rights of its citizens by breaching the First or Fourteenth Amendments with their law that banned support of organizations sympathizing with anti-organized government.