R.A.V. v. City of St. Paul, Minnesota

R.A.V. (defendant), a juvenile, burned a wooden cross on a Black family's lawn and was charged under the St. Paul Bias-Motivated Crime Ordinance, which prohibited symbols like burning crosses that the actor knows will arouse anger, alarm, or resentment based on race, color, creed, religion, or gender. R.A.V. moved to dismiss the charge as facially invalid under the First Amendment, arguing the ordinance was an unconstitutionally overbroad content-based speech regulation; the trial court agreed, but the Minnesota Supreme Court reversed, construing the ordinance as limited to unprotected 'fighting words,' and the U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari.