Police Department of Chicago v. Mosley

Background

Earl Mosley, a federal postal employee, had for months quietly picketed Jones Commercial High School, carrying a sign accusing the school of racial discrimination. Chicago passed an ordinance banning picketing on public sidewalks within 150 feet of a school during school hours, but it exempted peaceful labor picketing. After police warned he would be arrested, Mosley stopped picketing and sued, arguing the law violated his free speech and equal protection rights; lower courts split until this Court reviewed the case.

Reasoning

The Court asked whether the city may allow one kind of picketing while banning others based on their subject. The Court treated this as both a free-speech and equal-protection problem and held that deciding who may speak by looking at the message is forbidden. The city may adopt reasonable rules about time, place, and manner to prevent disruption, but it cannot make broad, content-based exemptions that let labor picketing while barring other peaceful protest about school policies unless the rule is narrowly tailored to real dangers.

Real world impact

The decision means cities cannot create blanket rules that favor certain subjects of speech near schools. Protesters who are not part of labor disputes keep the right to peaceful picketing at school sites unless a narrowly targeted rule shows they are more disruptive. Local governments must craft content-neutral restrictions or make case-by-case judgments to control actual disruptions without banning speech based on its message.

Dissents or concurrances

Chief Justice Burger agreed with the outcome but warned that the First Amendment does not protect all categories of speech absolutely; some limited, well-established exceptions remain.