Rescue Army et al. v. Municipal Court of Los Angeles (331 U.S. 549)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 9, 1947 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 331 U.S. 549 · 67 S. Ct. 1409
- Docket
- No. 574
- Argued
- February 6, 1947
- Decided
- June 9, 1947
- Term
- October Term 1946
- Vote
- 7–2
- Majority author
- Justice Rutledge
- Issue area
- Judicial Power
- Disposition
- Petition denied or appeal dismissed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
How the Justices voted
- Majority
- Chief Justice Vinson, Justice Burton, Justice R. H. Jackson, Justice Frankfurter, Justice Reed, Justice Rutledge (wrote)
- Concurring in the judgment
- Justice Black
- Dissenting
- Justice Douglas, Justice Murphy (wrote)
Opinion excerpt
Mr. Justice Rutledge delivered the opinion of the Court. On the merits this appeal presents substantial questions concerning the constitutional validity of ordinances of the City of Los Angeles governing the solicitation of contributions for charity. First and Fourteenth Amendment grounds are urged as nullifying them chiefly in the view that they impose prior restraints upon and unduly abridge appellants’ rights in the free exercise of their religion. Those rights, as claimed, are to engage in soliciting donations for charity as a part of their religion free from the ordinances’ restrictions. Similar, but also distinct, questions were involved in Gospel Army v. Los Angeles, dismissed today for jurisdictional reasons. 331 U. S. 543. This case, however, arose procedurally in a different fashion, so that it is not subject to the same jurisdictional defect. And the procedural difference is important, not merely for our jurisdiction but also for determining the propriety of exercising it in the special circumstances presented by this appeal. The California Supreme Court heard and determined the Gospel Army case several months in advance of this one. It sustained the regulations in both instances, filing separate opinions in each case. 27 Cal. 2d 232; 28 Cal. 2d 460. But the attack upon the city ordinances in the Gospel Army case covered a much wider range than here, and the…
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