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Commonwealth v. Davis | 162 Mass. 510 (1895)
Whether dragging a soapbox out to a town park or delivering an address to thousands on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, exercising one’s right to free speech under the First Amendment has been a prominent part of American culture and history. However, this right isn’t absolute. In Commonwealth versus Davis, we’ll explore how, historically, the government’s property rights gave the government a wide-ranging ability to restrict speech on public grounds.
In eighteen sixty-two, a local ordinance required anyone in Boston who wanted to deliver a sermon, lecture, address, or discourse on public grounds to first obtain a permit from the mayor. In eighteen ninety-two, the speech provision of this ordinance was modified to simply read public address.
In eighteen ninety-four, Matthew Davis preached on the Boston Common without a permit. Subsequently, he was charged by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts with making a public address on public grounds without a permit.
His case was tried in the Massachusetts Superior Court, where Davis argued that the ordinance was unconstitutional under the First Amendment and that his speech didn’t fall under the public address wording of the ordinance. The jury returned a guilty verdict. Davis appealed to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.
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