Cantwell v. Connecticut

Background

A man and his two sons who were members of Jehovah’s Witnesses went house to house in a New Haven neighborhood distributing books and pamphlets, asking permission to play a phonograph describing their materials, and soliciting contributions. Connecticut convicted them under a state law that made soliciting for religious causes a crime unless a state official first approved the cause; one son was also convicted for inciting a breach of the peace after playing a record that attacked the Catholic Church and offended two listeners.

Reasoning

The Court weighed the right to believe and to act on religion against the State’s interest in preventing fraud and preserving public order. It held that requiring a government official to decide what counts as a religious cause before any solicitation is a forbidden prior restraint on religious freedom and free speech. The Court said the State may regulate the time, place, and manner of solicitation and punish fraud, but it may not condition religious solicitation on a licensing decision about the nature of the cause. The Court also found that playing an offensive record to two willing listeners did not create the “clear and present danger” of violence needed to support a conviction for inciting a breach of the peace.

Real world impact

The ruling prevents states from requiring preapproval to solicit donations for religious causes and protects peaceful, even offensive, religious speech on public streets unless it clearly threatens immediate disorder. States remain able to punish actual fraud, true threats, or conduct that genuinely and immediately endangers public safety.