Bates v. City of Little Rock

Each of the petitioners has been convicted of violating an identical ordinance of an Arkansas municipality by refusing a demand to furnish city officials with a list of the names of the members of a local branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The question for decision is whether these-' convictions can stand under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Municipalitiés in Arkansas are authorized by the State to levy a license tax on any person, firm, individual, or corporation engaging in any “trade, business,…