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Benjamin Gitlow had been convicted for "Criminal anarchy" under a NY State law for publishing a Left Wing manifesto. He appealed to the Supreme Court on the grounds that this law conflicted with the constitutional freedom of speech as laid down in the First Amendment.

The case was significant because until that time the Supreme Court always had held that the Bill of Rights only applied to the Federal Government, and that individual States could by State law limit those rights, without Federal courts having the right to interfere.

In this case it was decided for the first time that the Bill of Rights could be binding for States as well, and that a Federal court did have the authority to review a State law on that basis.

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12y ago

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