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This section contains the nature of the case and procedural background.

In 1919, Whitney (D) helped form the Communist Labor Party of California. This group adopted an extreme program of action to advocate, teach, and aid criminal syndicalism. This program was adopted over D's protests. D, after taking out a temporary membership in the Communist Labor Party, attended its convention as a delegate and took an active part in its proceedings. She was elected a member of the Credentials Committee, and, as its chairman, made a report to the convention upon which the delegates were seated. She later attended one or two meetings of the State Executive Committee in San Jose and San Francisco and stated that she was then a member of the Communist Labor Party. She also testified that it was not her intention that the Communist Labor Party of California should be an instrument of terrorism or violence, and that it was not her purpose or that of the Convention to violate any known law. D was convicted for violation of the California Criminal Syndicalism Act because she organized a group that advocated unlawful acts of violence to get political change. D appealed, claiming that it was not her intent for the party to become a terrorist organization and that her mere presence at the convention was not a crime. D claimed that the Act deprived her of liberty without due process, freedom of speech, assembly, and association.

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