Religion Law Commons^™

Constitutional Law-Freedom Of Assembly-Equal Protection Of The Law, S. I. Shuman

Michigan Law Review

The ordinance here involved prohibited any person from addressing a political or religious meeting in any public park. At a meeting involving no disturbances or breaches of the peace, plaintiff, a Jehovah's Witness, was arrested when he addressed a meeting in a public park. The state supreme court upheld a conviction under the ordinance. Held, reversed. The principal case is on all fours with Niemotko v. Maryland. The state conceded at oral argument that the meeting was a religious one and that the ordinance as construed and applied did not prohibit church services in the park. Therefore, since …