hers to a deferred position."[183]

The third question concerns the quality and purpose of the speech which
the Constitution aims to protect. In 1949, Justice Douglas speaking for
a divided Court returned the following robustious answer to this
question: "* * * a function of free speech under our system of
government is to invite dispute. It may indeed best serve its high
purpose when it induces a condition of unrest, creates dissatisfaction
with conditions as they are, or even stirs people to anger. Speech is
often provocative and challenging. It may strike at prejudices and
preconceptions and have profound unsettling effects as it presses for
acceptance of an idea. That is why freedom of speech, though not
absolute, Chaplinsky _v._ New Hampshire, supra, pp. 571-572, is
nevertheless protected against censorship or punishment, unless shown
likely to produce a clear and present danger of a serious substantive
evil that rises far above public inconvenience, annoyance, or
unrest."[184] But early in 1951 Justice Jackson, in a dissenting
opinion, urges the Court to review its entire position in the light of
the proposition that "the purpose of constitutional protection of
freedom of speech is to foster peaceful interchange of all manner of
thoughts, information and ideas," that "its policy is rooted in faith of
the force of reason."[185] He considers that the Court has been striking
"rather blindly at permit systems which indirectly may affect First
Amendment freedom." He says: "Cities throughout the country have adopted
the permit requirement to control private activities on public streets
and for other purposes. The universality of this type of regulation
demonstrates a need and indicates widespread opinion in the profession
that it is not necessarily incompatible with our constitutional
freedoms. Is everybody out of step but this Court? * * * It seems
hypercritical to strike down local laws on their faces for want of
standards when we have no standards. And I do not find it required by
existing authority. I think that where speech is outside of
constitutional immunity the local community or the State is left a large
measure of discretion as to the means for dealing with it."[186] This
diversity of viewpoint on the Court touching the above questions became
of importance when, recently, the Court was faced with the problem of
the relation of freedom of speech to the enumerated powers of the
National Government, in contrast