On 6/3/2021 4:58 PM, Sqwertz wrote:
> The
> Supreme Court has ruled that solicitors of any sort are allowed to
> bug the shit out of you by knocking on you door to deliver any
> message they want, provided it's a "proper time and place". I shit
> you not.

Indeed!

https://www.foxnews.com/story/justic...r-solicitation

WASHINGTON €“ The Constitution protects the right of missionaries,
politicians and others to knock on doors without first getting
permission from local authorities, the Supreme Court ruled Monday.

The court struck down a local law that leaders of a small Ohio town said
was meant to protect elderly residents from being bothered at home. The
ruling is a victory for the Jehovah's Witnesses, whose religion calls
for doorstep proselytizing.

By a vote of 8 to 1, the court reasoned that the First Amendment right
to free speech includes the entitlement to take a message or idea
directly to someone's door, and that the right cannot be limited by a
requirement to register by name ahead of time.

"The mere fact that the ordinance covers so much speech raises
constitutional concerns," Justice John Paul Stevens wrote for himself
and Justices Sandra Day O'Connor, Anthony M. Kennedy, David H. Souter,
Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer.

"It is offensive, not only to the values protected by the First
Amendment, but to the very notion of a free society, that in the context
of everyday public discourse a citizen must first inform the government
of her desire to speak to her neighbors and then obtain a permit to do so."

Two of the court's most conservative justices, Antonin Scalia and
Clarence Thomas, agreed only with the outcome of the case and did not
sign on to Stevens' reasoning.

Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist dissented.


The case is Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York Inc. v.
Village of Stratton, Ohio, et al., 00-1737.