Cantwell v. Connecticut

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Cantwell v. Connecticut
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued March 29, 1940
Decided May 20, 1940
Full case name: Cantwell et al. v. State of Connecticut
Citations: 310 U.S. 296; 60 S. Ct. 900; 84 L. Ed. 1213; 1940 U.S. LEXIS 591; 128 A.L.R. 1352
Prior history: 126 Conn. 1, 8 A.2d 533; Appeal from and certiorari from the Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut
Subsequent history: None
Holding
The Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment is incorporated against the states by the Fourteenth Amendment.
Court membership
Chief Justice: Charles Evans Hughes
Associate Justices: James Clark McReynolds, Harlan Fiske Stone, Owen Josephus Roberts, Hugo Black, Stanley Forman Reed, Felix Frankfurter, William O. Douglas, Frank Murphy
Case opinions
Majority by: Roberts
Joined by: unanimous
Laws applied
U.S. Const., amends. I and XIV

Cantwell v. Connecticut, 310 U.S. 296 (1940)[1], was a United States Supreme Court decision holding that incorporated (enforced) the First Amendment's protection of religious free exercise against individual states (as opposed to federal actions).

Contents

[edit] Facts

Newton Cantwell and his two sons, Jesse and Russel, were Jehovah's Witnesses who were proselytizing in a heavily-Roman Catholic neighborhood in New Haven, Connecticut. The Cantwells were going door to door, each with books and pamphlets and a portable phonograph with sets of records. Each record contained a description of one of the books. One such phonograph, called "Enemies", attacked the Catholic religion. When Jesse Cantwell played this phonograph for two men, they became angry. The Cantwells were arrested and charged with inciting a common-law breach of the peace and violating a statute requiring registration of religious solicitors.

[edit] Issue

The issue presented before the court was whether the state's action in convicting the Cantwells with inciting a breach of the peace and violating the solicitation statute violated their First Amendment right to free exercise of religion.

[edit] Result

The Court found that the Cantwell's action was protected by the First and Fourteenth Amendments.

[edit] Analysis

This case incorporated (enforced) the First Amendment's Free Exercise Clause against the states, thereby protecting free exercise of religion from intrusive state action. The Establishment Clause was incorporated seven years later in Everson v. Board of Education (1947).

[edit] See also


[edit] External link

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