Commonwealth v. Welch

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• criminal harassment is “closely related” to criminal stalking, “employing nearly identical language but eliminating the threat requirement”
• First Amendment allows restrictions on speech that are “fighting words” or “true threats”
• G. L. c. 265, § 43A, the criminal harassment statute, cannot be applied to speech protected by First Amendment

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).

Cited by

42 cases in this archive cite this case; the 20 most cited are listed.

• Tyler v. Michaels Stores, Inc.
  Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court· 2013-03-11· cited 84×
• Commonwealth v. Cory
  Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court· 2009-08-18· cited 61×
• Thurdin v. SEI Boston, LLC
  Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court· 2008-10-24· cited 49×
• Commonwealth v. Walters
  Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court· 2015-09-18· cited 33×
• Commonwealth v. Johnson
  Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court· 2014-12-23· cited 29×
• Commonwealth v. Resende
  Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court· 2016-06-09· cited 24×
• Sperounes v. Farese
  Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court· 2007-09-17· cited 20×
• Commonwealth v. Kulesa
  Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court· 2009-12-07· cited 15×
• Commonwealth v. McDonald
  Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court· 2012-05-18· cited 15×
• Commonwealth v. Brennan
  Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court· 2018-12-21· cited 14×
• Commonwealth v. Bigelow
  Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court· 2016-09-27· cited 13×
• Commonwealth v. O'Neil
  Massachusetts Appeals Court· 2006-09-07· cited 13×
• Kenniston v. Department of Youth Services
  Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court· 2009-02-10· cited 12×
• Commonwealth v. Jean-Pierre
  Massachusetts Appeals Court· 2005-11-23· cited 12×
• DeMayo v. Quinn
  Massachusetts Appeals Court· 2015-02-24· cited 10×
• Smith-Pena v. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. (In re Smith-Pena)
  D. Massachusetts· 2013-01-02· cited 10×
• State v. Moulton
  Connecticut Appellate Court· 2010-04-13· cited 9×
• Mammoet Usa, Inc. v. Entergy Nuclear Generation Co.
  Massachusetts Appeals Court· 2005-07-18· cited 8×
• Commonwealth v. Abramms
  Massachusetts Appeals Court· 2006-06-23· cited 8×
• Commonwealth v. Rezendes
  Massachusetts Appeals Court· 2015-09-17· cited 7×

Cites

75 cases in this archive are cited by this case; the 20 most cited are listed.

• Jackson v. Virginia
  Supreme Court· 1979-10-01· cited 79,490×
• Cantwell v. Connecticut
  Supreme Court· 1940-05-20· cited 3,669×
• Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire
  Supreme Court· 1942-03-09· cited 2,706×
• R. A. v. v. City of St. Paul
  Supreme Court· 1992-06-22· cited 2,052×
• Commonwealth v. Latimore
  Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court· 1979-08-07· cited 1,893×
• Collins v. Youngblood
  Supreme Court· 1990-06-21· cited 1,864×
• Cohen v. California
  Supreme Court· 1971-06-07· cited 1,777×
• Texas v. Johnson
  Supreme Court· 1989-06-21· cited 1,671×
• City of Houston v. Hill
  Supreme Court· 1987-06-15· cited 1,428×
• Gooding v. Wilson
  Supreme Court· 1972-03-23· cited 1,392×
• Brandenburg v. Ohio
  Supreme Court· 1969-06-09· cited 1,379×
• Virginia v. Black
  Supreme Court· 2003-04-07· cited 1,109×
• Watts v. United States
  Supreme Court· 1969-04-21· cited 977×
• Cox v. Louisiana
  Supreme Court· 1965-01-18· cited 938×
• Giboney v. Empire Storage & Ice Co.
  Supreme Court· 1949-04-04· cited 874×
• Madsen v. Women's Health Center, Inc.
  Supreme Court· 1994-06-30· cited 780×
• Lewis v. City of New Orleans
  Supreme Court· 1974-02-20· cited 533×
• Long v. State
  Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas· 1996-09-11· cited 294×
• Commonwealth v. Alphas
  Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court· 1999-07-07· cited 290×
• Commonwealth v. Helfant
  Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court· 1986-08-13· cited 274×