Cox v. Louisiana, 379 U.S. 536 (1965), is a United States Supreme Court case based on the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. It held that a state government cannot employ "breach of the peace" statutes against protesters engaging in peaceable demonstrations that may potentially incite violence. Background The case arose after the picketing of a segregated restaurant on December 14, 1961, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, led to the arrest of 23 student protesters from Southern University, a black college. The next day, B. Elton Cox, a minister, arranged a protest of 2,000 people at the courthouse where the students were being held. The police agreed to allow the protest as long as it was across the street from the courthouse. Between 100 and 300 whites gathered on the other side of the street. The protesters proceeded in a peaceful orderly fashion, and began to sing songs and hymns causing the jailed students to respond by singing. Cox then gave a speech exhorting the protesters that upon departure from the courthouse, to proceed into downtown to sit at the segregated lunch counters, This caused "muttering" and "grumbling" in the gathering white crowd across the street. The sheriff then ordered the protesters to disperse, but before they could, the police fired tear gas into the black group, injuring some, including minister Cox who was hit in the ankle by a tear gas cannister. No arrests were made then, but the next day Reverend Cox was arrested at a church and charged with four offenses under Louisiana law, criminal conspiracy, disturbing the peace, obstructing public passages, and picketing before a courthouse. This heavy raft of charges Cox held was a pretext to charge exorbitant bail with the design of draining the funds of the local civil rights movement, and silencing his leadership. Cox was later acquitted of criminal conspiracy but convicted of the other three offenses and sentenced to a total of one year and nine months jail time and fined $5,700. In two separate judgments the Louisiana Supreme Court affirmed all three convictions. Both judgments were appealed. Social context All courts adhere to the same judicial standards as the Supreme Court, but local and state courts are more immediately influenced by the political and social environments specific to their location and representative body (Vines 1965: 5). For example, during the 1950s and 1960s, the courts governing states and cities in the