Pedestrian Civil Rights
October 16, 1959
TO WHOM IT MAY
CONCERN:
This will advise you that the laws of the United States of America are
as follows,
pertaining to the rights of citizens to preach on the streets, to wit:
The Federal Civil Rights
Act makes it a felony, punishable by fine and imprisonment to conspire to
deprive a person of .his rights, or to molest or interfere with the
exercise of his civil
rights, See 18 U. S. C. Sections 241, 242. See also 8 U. S. C.
Sections 21, 42, 43, 47 & 49.
Also the case of Srews vs. U.S., 325 U. S. 91, where the Court said (SUPREME
COURT), ".... He who defies a decision
interpreting the Constitution
knows
precisely what he is doing."
Catlette vs. U.S., 132 F 2nd
902, also settles that any officer who arrests any
citizen who is guaranteed by the Civil Rights Act
to do what he is arrested for doing, shall be
punished by one year in prison, or a $1,000.00 fine, or both.
The United States Supreme Court in recent years has settled beyond any shadow
of a doubt that citizens have the right to use
the streets in an orderly manner to
preach their religious convictions, to wit:
Hogue vs. C.I.O., 307 U.S. 496
Saia vs. New York, 334 U. S. 558
Cantwell
vs. Connecticut, 310 U. S. 2.96
Lovell vs.
Griffin, 303 U.S. 444
In Sellers vs. Johnson, 163 F 2nd 877, it was said: "The
action of the Sheriff,
sponsored by the Mayor, in blockading public highways leading into the town of
Lacona for the purpose of preventing the
Jehovah's Witnesses from holding a meeting in the public park on September 15,
1946, constituted an unlawful deprivation of the
constitutional rights of the Jehovah's Witnesses."
In Schneider vs. New Jersey, 308 U. S. 147, the Court said: "But, as we
have
said, the streets are natural and proper places for the dissemination of
information
and opinion, and one is not to have the exercise
of his liberty of expression in
appropriate places abridged on the plea that it may be exercised some
other place."
See Jamison vs. Texas, 318 U. S. 413, which is the same
holding, and uses
similar terminology.
THERE IS NO DOUBT but that citizens have a right to state their views in
an
orderly fashion on the
streets of any City in the United States, and any arrest in an
effort to stop same is a violation of the law.
Respectfully submitted,
DALFORD TODD
(Attorney at Law)