National Association for the Advancement of Colored People v. Button - Petitioner's Claims

The NAACP had argued that the statute deprived it of property without due process and violated its right to equal protection. These two claims were dismissed by the Court. In regard to due process, the Court found that the statute was within the range of permissible regulations. Equal protection was not an issue because technically the statute applied to many groups, not just to the NAACP or to African Americans (as the Court wrote, "that the petitioner happens to be engaged in activities of expression and association on behalf of the rights of Negro children to equal opportunity is constitutionally irrelevant to the grounds of our decision"). The NAACP also claimed that the statute violated its First Amendment freedoms of speech and association, as extended under the Fourteenth Amendment. It was on these grounds that the Court struck down the statute.