I think the small time lawyer will be out gunned on this one- most small towns always end up passsing goofy laws like this one
while i have no love for wt i do know a poorly written law when i see one exp when the mayor is walking around IN AFFECT SAYING: "Ww want to keep YOU people out"
THE boys in legal laugh when they see some elective dude say some off the cuff remark like that
i tell you once i tell you again- thsi little town could have saved 10's of 1000's of dollars by merely using what is already in place.
WT has a policy that many of us know has been in effect for years. "DO NOT CALL"
I have told all my block how to keep jw away by merely asking would they be so kind as to include their home on the local KH list of DO NOT CALL and now almost every house on my block is written down on the back of a territory card and the jw know not to call
NO COST, SIMPLE AND CLEAN- WHY NOT USE THE WT ON RULES they make it so easy don't they
well i was not able to get down to the court on tues, but here is the article from the WASH POST and as you can see it APPEARS THAT THE COURT LAUGHED THE COUNTRY LAWYERS OUT OF COURT
let's put it this way if OHIO win i will be shocked if WT wins it will be no surprised BASED ON HOW THE GOOFY LAW WAS WRITTEN
why didn't they make sure that the law would cut mustard first
james
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7569-2002Feb26.html
By Charles Lane
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, February 27, 2002; Page A03
Three gentle knocks on a lectern opened a debate over religious and political freedom at the Supreme Court yesterday, as a lawyer for the Jehovah's Witnesses demonstrated what happens when members of the group appear at front doors in the Ohio village of Stratton.
Under Stratton's contested ordinance barring unauthorized canvassing or soliciting, "it is a criminal act to go door-to-door to deliver [the group's] message without a permit," Paul D. Polidoro told the justices. "It would also be illegal to pass out a leaflet saying, 'Democracy is wonderful. Please vote tomorrow.' " And that, Polidoro said, violates the First Amendment.
Stratton countered that its ordinance is necessary to protect the safety and privacy of its 300 mostly elderly residents, and that it applies equally to everyone -- a view that prevailed both in an Ohio federal district court and in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit, prompting the Jehovah's Witnesses' appeal to the Supreme Court.
At the court yesterday, however, several justices suggested that the measure's scope is broader than necessary to accomplish the town's professed objectives.
"We can all stipulate that the safest societies in the world are totalitarian societies," Justice Antonin Scalia remarked to Stratton's lawyer, Abraham Cantor, adding that "some risk" of crime might be the price of liberty.
Justice Anthony M. Kennedy observed that, read literally, the ordinance might apply to neighbors going down the block to complain about poor garbage collection.
And Justice Sandra Day O'Connor asked whether Halloween trick-or-treaters have to get a permit. Spectators laughed, but O'Connor persisted. "I'm serious," she said.
Cantor denied that the rule covers trick-or-treaters. But in his rebuttal, Polidoro said homeowners are allowed to tell Stratton's mayor whether they would permit an exception to the law at their homes for trick-or-treaters.
The case, Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York v. Village of Stratton, No. 00-1737, has attracted attention in part because the Jehovah's Witnesses -- who believe that they may not salute the flag or submit to military conscription, and that they must proselytize in person among their neighbors -- have a history of fighting and winning important free-expression cases in the Supreme Court.
Polidoro alluded to that history when he told the justices of the group's "long historical memory as to what they have suffered at the hands of municipalities."
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg reminded Polidoro, however, that past cases involved local officials who denied the Jehovah's Witnesses rights that they granted to others, whereas here the group had not yet even applied for a permit in Stratton.
Still, only Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist seemed to agree fully with Stratton that public safety might justify the permit requirement, noting that two teenagers arrested for a brutal double murder near Dartmouth College had allegedly posed as poll-takers to gain access to homes in the area.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which also practices door-to-door proselytizing, filed a brief backing the Jehovah's Witnesses in which it decried a "substantial increase" in municipal ordinances similar to Stratton's over the past decade. Such rules, the Mormons say, have "severely curtailed" church members' ability to express themselves.
On Stratton's side, the National League of Cities, the National Association of Counties, the U.S. Conference of Mayors and other local government organizations said a defeat for Stratton would leave localities around the country less able to control unwanted or dangerous visitors.
The case also is being closely watched by both sides of the campaign finance reform debate for clues as to the court's views on the regulation of political speech.
Under the Stratton ordinance, political activists, too, would have to disclose their identities to officials to get a permit to distribute their pamphlets.
In the past, the court has said that the Constitution protects the right to publish and distribute political literature anonymously.
Campaign reform advocates are concerned that the court, in this case, could produce an opinion broadening that right to anonymity -- thereby eroding the legal foundations of state and federal disclosure rules for candidates and donors.
The Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University Law School, a leading campaign reform group, urged the court in a friend-of-the-court brief, which was not filed on behalf of either side in the case, "to clarify that federal, state and local election-related reporting and disclosure requirements are constitutional, with only very narrow exceptions."