SCHNEIDER V. NEW JERSEY 308 U.S. 147 (1939) CASE BRIEF

SCHNEIDER V. NEW JERSEY

308 U.S. 147 (1939)

NATURE OF THE CASE: This was a dispute over ordinances that prohibited the distribution of handbills to prevent littering.

FACTS: Four cases are consolidated. The appellant in Los Angeles distributed handbills to pedestrians on a public sidewalk, and had more than three hundred in his possession for that purpose. The handbill promoted a meeting for the 'Friends Lincoln Brigade' at which speakers would discuss the war in Spain. He was charged with violation of a city ordinance. Judgment of conviction was entered, and sentence imposed. The court below sustained the validity of the ordinance on the ground that experience shows littering of the streets results from the indiscriminate distribution of handbills. The Superior Court of Los Angeles County affirmed the judgment.

The petitioner in Wisconsin stood in the street in front of a meat market and distributed to passing pedestrians hand-bills which pertained to a labor dispute with the meat market, set forth the position of organized labor with respect to the market, and asked citizens to refrain from patronizing it. Many of the papers were discarded and lay in the gutter and in the street. The police officers who arrested the petitioner and charged him with a violation of the ordinance did not arrest any of those who received the bills and threw them away. The Milwaukee County court found the petitioner guilty and fined him. On appeal, the judgment was affirmed by the Supreme Court. The court held that the purpose of the ordinance was to prevent an unsightly, untidy, and offensive condition of the sidewalks.

The appellants in Massachusetts distributed leaflets announcing a protest meeting in connection with the administration of state unemployment insurance. Some of those to whom the leaflets were handed threw them on the sidewalk and the street, with the result that some thirty were lying about. The appellants were arrested and charged with a violation of the ordinance. The Superior Court of Worcester County rendered a judgment of conviction and imposed sentence. The Supreme Judicial Court overruled exceptions. That court held the ordinance a valid regulation of the use of the streets.

The petitioner in Irvington was arrested and charged with canvassing without a permit. She is a member of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society (Jehovah's Witnesses). She did not apply for or obtain a permit pursuant to the ordinance, because she conscientiously believed that so to do would be an act of disobedience to the command of Almighty God. The petitioner was convicted in the Recorder's Court. The Court of Common Pleas affirmed the judgment. On a further appeal, the Supreme Court affirmed.

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LEGAL ANALYSIS:

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