Mosley V. Mosely Case

On March 26, 1968, the city of Chicago had adopted an ordinance that prohibited protesting within 150 feet of a school during school hours with an exception for peaceful labor protest that would go into effect on April 5, 1968. A man by the name of Earl Mosley had been protesting against black discrimination on the sidewalk beside Jones Commercial High School for seven months prior to the enactment of the ordinance. After seeing the announcement in the newspaper, Mosley had contacted the Chicago Police Department to find out how the ordinance would affect him. The police department informed him saying that if the protesting continued they would arrest him. On April 4, 1968, the day before the ordinance would be enacted, Mosely had ceased …show more content…
Mosley then appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, asking them to review it. Even though, the city of Chicago argued that the ordinance was not prohibiting the content, but instead trying to prevent disruption of the school. The court went with Mosely proclaiming that the ordinance prohibited protesting based off of the content even around the schools. The question that now arose was did the Chicago ordinance violate the First Amendment? The seventh court ruled that yes it did in fact violate the First Amendment. Chicago then appealed to the supreme court for reevaluation of the decision. The supreme court started arguing over the case on January 19, 1972 and came to a decision June 26, 1972. The supreme court ruled in agreement to the seventh court decision. Being a majority opinion, the supreme court decided that protesting may not be prohibited based only on its subject matter. However, the government can put restrictions on the time, place, and the manner of the protest because those details did not interfere with the First Amendment. In conclusion, the government can regulate the time, place, and the manner of a protest. However, the government cannot regulate the content of the protest, for it is