"Court Hears Two Georgia Election Suits, Gives Bond Seat."
Congressional Quarterly 24, no. 49 (December 9, 1966): 2997.
On December 5, 1966, the United States Supreme Court handed down
their unanimous decision (9-0) in favor of Julian Bond, in the
Julian Bond v. James "Sloppy" Floyd case. This article briefly
announces that decision.
 EXCERPT
Georgia House. Julian Bond v. James "Sloppy" Floyd; reversed
by a 9-0 vote Dec. 5, 1966.
Julian Bond, 26 years old, was an Atlanta, Ga., Negro who was elected to the Georgia House on
June 15, 1965. On Jan. 6, 1966, he endorsed a statement of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating
Committee (SNCC), a militant civil rights organization, which denounced the Viet Nam war. He
added that he was "eager and anxious to encourage people not to participate in it for any
reason that they choose.... I'm against all war.... Because I'm against war, I'm against the
draft...." For those similar statements, he was excluded, and won the regular election
Nov. 8.
Chief Justice Earl Warren, writing for the Court, said that Bond's
statements were protected by the 1st Amendment, that he could not
constitutionally be prosecuted for making them and that the Georgia
House violated Bond's freedom of speech in disqualifying him. "The
manifest function of the 1st Amendment in a representative government
requires that legislators be given the widest latitude to express
their views on issues of policy," the Chief Justice said.
The Court reversed a three-judge federal district court which had
upheld the House.
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