Case Categories: Speech on Public Property

• Bachellar v. Maryland (1970)

  Bachellar v. Maryland (1970) dealt with the First Amendment and protestors who may have been convicted simply for their views against the Vietnam War...

• Cox v. Louisiana (1965)

  In Cox v. Louisiana, the Supreme Court overturned a state law used to arrest civil rights marchers saying the law infringed upon freedoms of assembly and speech...

• Davis v. Massachusetts (1897)

  Davis v. Massachusetts (1897) dismissed a First Amendment claim and gave municipalities unlimited authority over open-air speech in a case involving unlicensed...

• Edwards v. South Carolina (1963)

  Edwards v. South Carolina (1963) said South Carolina violated students’ First Amendment rights when the police dispersed a peaceful protest against...

• Flower v. United States (1972)

  Flower v. United States (1972) used the First Amendment to overturn the conviction of a man for distributing leaflets at a military base after officials had...

• Forsyth County, Georgia v. Nationalist Movement (1992)

  Forsyth County v. Nationalist Movement (1992) said an ordinance violated the First Amendment by letting officials vary protest permit costs based on the cost of...

• Fowler v. Rhode Island (1953)

  Fowler v. Rhode Island (1953) said preventing a Jehovah’s Witness from holding a religious service in a public park, but allowing other worship, violated the...

• Gregory v. City of Chicago (1969)

  In Gregory v. City of Chicago, the Court upheld the First Amendment rights of peaceful protestors over police attempting to quell anticipated civil disorder...

• Hague v. Committee for Industrial Organization (1939)

  Hague v. Committee for Industrial Organization (1939) dealt with the freedom of assembly and set the precedent for the public forum doctrine in First Amendment...

• Heffron v. International Society for Krishna Consciousness (1981)

  Heffron v. International Society for Krishna Consciousness (1981) upheld a content neutral regulation on religious practices against a First Amendment challenge...

• Jamison v. Texas (1943)

  In Jamison v. Texas, the Court, on First Amendment grounds, overturned the conviction of a Jehovah’s Witness who distributed handbills on the streets...

• Kunz v. New York (1951)

  Kunz v. New York (1951) overturned a city ordinance which refused to renew a street preaching permit. The Court struck down the law as a prior restraint of...

• Lee v. International Society for Krishna Consciousness (1992)

  In Lee v. International Society for Krishna Consciousness (1991), the Supreme Court said the First Amendment prohibited a ban on leafleting in an airport...

• Lehman v. City of Shaker Heights (1974)

  Lehman v. City of Shaker Heights (1974) said that prohibiting political advertisements on public transportation does not violate a candidate’s First Amendment...

• Marsh v. Alabama (1946)

  In Marsh v. Alabama (1946) the Court held that a person distributing religious literature on the sidewalk of a “company town” was protected by the First...

• Niemotko v. Maryland (1951)

  Niemotko v. Maryland (1951) found that a conviction for holding a Bible study in a park without a permit was a denial of the First Amendment right to exercise...

• O'Connor v. Washburn University (10th Cir.) (2005)

  O’Connor v. Washburn University (10th Cir. 2005) affirmed a district court decision denying damages to those who alleged that a religious sculpture violated...

• Perry Education Association v. Perry Local Educators' Association (1983)

  Perry Education Association v. Perry Local Educators’ Association (1983) used the public forum doctrine to define First Amendment rights granted on government...

• Poulos v. New Hampshire (1953)

  Poulos v. New Hampshire (1953) found a state ordinance that banned holding religious services in public parks without a permit did not violate the First...

• Schneider v. State (1939)

  Schneider v. State (1939) invalidated several city ordinances that restricted the distribution of handbills, ruling that the laws infringed on the First...

• Shuttlesworth v. Birmingham (1969)

  Shuttlesworth v. Birmingham (1969) ruled that the conviction of the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth for leading a protest march without a permit violated the First...

• Southeastern Promotions, Ltd. v. Conrad (1975)

  Southeastern Promotions v. Conrad (1975) said a city's denial of theater space for a performance of the controversial musical Hair violated the First Amendment...

• United States v. Apel (2014)

  The Supreme Court in United States v. Apel (2014) ruled that the government did not forfeit rights to guard its military bases because of a road easement. An...

• United States v. Grace (1983)

  In 1983, the Supreme Court ruled that a federal law that prohibited picketing outside the U.S. Supreme Court building was improperly applied to the sidewalks in...

• United States v. Kokinda (1990)

  In 1990, the Supreme Court upheld a federal regulation that prohibited solicitation on post office property, including the sidewalks outside. In United States v...

• Virginia v. Hicks (2003)

  Virginia v. Hicks (2003) held that a trespassing policy of a public housing development was not facially invalid under the First Amendment’s overbreadth...

• Wood v. Moss (2014)

  Wood v. Moss (2014)said Secret Service agents who removed protestors were entitled to qualified immunity after the protestors claimed their First Amendment...