| 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).
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.
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.
Result
The Court found that the Cantwell's action was protected by the First and Fourteenth Amendments.
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).
See also
External links
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