Saia v. New York

Opinion of the Court by

Mr. Justice Douglas, announced by Mr. Justice Black.

This case presents the question of the validity under the Fourteenth Amendment of a penal ordinance of the City of Lockport, New York, which forbids the use of sound amplification devices except with permission of the Chief of Police.1

*559Appellant is a minister of the religious sect known as Jehovah’s Witnesses. He obtained from the Chief of Police permission to use sound equipment, mounted atop his car, to amplify lectures on religious subjects. The lectures were given at a fixed place in a public park on designated…