June (Web-only) 2002

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Supreme Court rules that Stratton, Ohio, violated free speech
In an 8-1 decision yesterday, the Supreme Court again ruled in favor of the Jehovah's Witnesses. A law in Stratton, Ohio, ordering all door-to-door canvassers to first get permission from the mayor's office is unconstitutional, the court said (PDF | HTML).

"It is offensive—not only to the values protected by the First Amendment, but to the very notion of a free society—that in the context of everyday public discourse a citizen must first inform the government of her desire to speak to her neighbors and then obtain a permit to do so," Justice John Paul Stevens wrote for the majority. Distributing religious materials, the court reiterated from previous rulings, "occupies the same high estate under the First Amendment as do worship in the churches and preaching from the pulpits." Still, the court concentrated on free speech, not religious freedom—all canvassing, not just religious canvassing, is okay.

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In a concurring opinion, Justice Stephen G. Breyer dismissed Rehnquist's concerns. "For one thing, there is no indication that the legislative body that passed the ordinance considered this justification," he wrote. "Stratton did not rely on the rationale. … If the village of Stratton thought preventing burglaries and violent crimes was an important justification for this ordinance, it would have said so."

"The next time some Jehovah's Witnesses interrupt your dinner, you might consider thanking them," USA Today says in one of the only editorials Weblog has seen on the decision. "In gritty dedication to their religious principles, this out-of-the-mainstream denomination of scarcely 1 million members has probably done more than any other institution to secure freedom ...