Chapman v. California

Chapman v. California
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued December 7–8, 1966 Decided February 20, 1967
Full case name	Ruth Elizabeth Chapman and Thomas Leroy Teale v. California
Docket no.	95
Citations	386 U.S. 18 (more) 17 L. Ed. 2d 705, 87 S. Ct. 824
Argument	Oral argument
Case history
Prior	Conviction (1963), affirmed, People v. Teale, 63 Cal. 2d 178 (1965)
Holding
1) Violations of federally-protected rights must be governed by a federal harmless-error rule, not state rules, and 2) such errors are not harmless unless the state proves beyond a reasonable doubt that the error complained of did not contribute to the verdict obtained.
Court membership
Chief Justice Earl Warren Associate Justices Hugo Black · William O. Douglas Tom C. Clark · John M. Harlan II William J. Brennan Jr. · Potter Stewart Byron White · Abe Fortas
Case opinions
Majority	Black, joined by Warren, Douglas, Clark, Brennan, White, and Fortas
Concurrence	Stewart
Dissent	Harlan
Laws applied
U.S. Const. amends. V, XIV

Chapman v. California, 386 U.S. 18 (1967),^[1] was a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States that a federal "harmless error" rule must apply, instead of equivalent state rules, for reviewing trials where federally-protected rights had been violated.