Police Department of Chicago v. Mosley

Petitioners

Police Department of the City of Chicago, et al.

Respondent

Earl Mosley

Petitioners' Claim

That a Chicago city ordinance banning labor-related picketing next to a school was constitutional.

Chief Lawyer for Petitioners

Richard L. Curry

Chief Lawyer for Respondent

Harvey J. Barnett

Justices for the Court

Harry A. Blackmun, William J. Brennan, Jr., Warren E. Burger, William O. Douglas, Thurgood Marshall (writing for the Court), Lewis F. Powell, Jr., William H. Rehnquist, Potter Stewart, Byron R. White

Justices Dissenting

None

Place

Washington, D.C.

Date of Decision

26 June 1972

Decision

Denied the petitioners' claim and reversed the decision of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, affirming the decision of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals that the Chicago ordinance banning non-labor demonstrations next to schools violated the Equal Protection Clauses of the First and Fourteenth Amendments.

Significance

The ruling extended protection of an individual's right to freedom of speech and assembly which the Court had previously affirmed by striking down state ordinances banning demonstrations in the vicinity of state capitols: Gregory v. City of Chicago (1969) and parks: Niemotko v. Maryland (1951).

Related Cases

• Edwards v. South Carolina, 372 U.S. 229 (1966).
• Gregory v. City of Chicago, 394 U.S. 111 (1969).
• City Council of Los Angeles v. Taxpayers for Vincent, 466 U.S. 289 (1984).
• Frisby v. Schultz, 487 U.S. 474 (1988).

Further Readings

• Hall, Kermit L., ed. Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.
• Whitehead, John. "Academic Freedom and the Rights of Religious Faculty." Rutherford Institute. http://campus.leaderu.com/real/ri-intro/freedom.