Fowler v. Rhode Island (345 U.S. 67)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided March 9, 1953 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 345 U.S. 67 · 73 S. Ct. 526
- Decided
- March 9, 1953
- Term
- October Term 1952
- Vote
- 9–0
- Majority author
- Justice Douglas
- Issue area
- First Amendment
- Disposition
- Reversed and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
- Constitutional ruling
- Local ordinance held unconstitutional
Opinion excerpt
Mr. Justice Douglas delivered the opinion of the Court. The City of Pawtucket, Rhode Island, has an ordinance which reads as follows: “Sec. 11. No person shall address any political or religious meeting in any public park; but this section shall not be construed to prohibit any political or religious club or society from visiting any public park in a body, provided that no public address shall be made under the auspices of such club or society in such park.” Jehovah’s Witnesses, a religious sect, assembled in Slater Park of Pawtucket for a meeting which at the trial was conceded to be religious in character. About 400 people attended, 150 being Jehovah’s Witnesses. Appellant is a minister of this sect, residing in Arlington, Mass. He was invited to Pawtucket as a visiting minister to give a talk before the Pawtucket congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Appellant accepted the invitation, attended the meeting in the park, and addressed it over two loud-speakers. It was a quiet, orderly meeting with no disturbances or breaches of the peace whatsoever. Appellant’s address was entitled “The Pathway to Peace.” He discussed the futility of efforts being made to establish peace in the world. And then, according to his uncontradicted testimony, he “launched forth into the scriptural evidence to show where we were on the string of time; that we had reached the end of this wicked system…
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