Busey v. District of Columbia

Background

A group of Jehovah’s Witnesses were convicted for selling religious magazines on the streets of the District of Columbia without first getting a license and paying the tax required by § 47-2336 of the D.C. Code (1940). The D.C. Court of Appeals upheld the convictions after deciding the law applied and did not violate the First Amendment. The appeals court had framed two questions—whether the statute applied to the sellers and whether its application infringed the First Amendment—and it followed earlier decisions like Cole v. Fort Smith and Bowden v. Fort Smith.

Reasoning

After the Supreme Court reconsidered related cases, it held in Jones v. Opelika and Murdock v. Pennsylvania that license taxes on the street distribution of religious literature were unconstitutional. The petitioners in this D.C. case asked the Court to read the local statute as inapplicable to avoid that constitutional problem, and the respondent conceded the infirmity at oral argument. In view of the later rulings, the Supreme Court vacated the convictions and sent the case back so the appeals court can reexamine the D.C. ordinance’s construction and its validity under the newer decisions.

Real world impact

The immediate effect is that the convictions are set aside and the appeals court must reassess the D.C. licensing rule in light of decisions striking down similar taxes. If the appeals court finds the same constitutional problem, enforcement against people selling religious literature on the street could be limited. This action follows other Supreme Court rulings and therefore affects how local license taxes on street religious activity will be treated going forward; it is not itself the final ruling on the D.C. law.

Dissents or concurrances

One Justice, Rutledge, did not take part in considering or deciding the case.