Marsh v. Alabama
| Marsh v. Alabama | |
|---|---|
| Argued December 7, 1945 Decided January 7, 1946 | |
| Full case name | Marsh v. State of Alabama |
| Citations | 326 U.S. 501 (more) 66 S. Ct. 276; 90 L. Ed. 265 |
| Case history | |
| Prior | Defendant found guilty in Alabama Circuit Court; Alabama Court of Appeals affirmed; Alabama Supreme Court denied certiorari |
| Subsequent | Reversed and Remanded |
| Holding | |
| Constitutional protections of free speech under First and Fourteenth Amendments still apply within the confines of a town owned by a private entity. | |
| Court membership | |
| |
| Case opinions | |
| Majority | Black, joined by Douglas, Murphy, Rutledge; Frankfurter (in part) |
| Concurrence | Frankfurter |
| Dissent | Reed, joined by Stone, Burton |
| Jackson took no part in the consideration or decision of the case. | |
| Laws applied | |
| U.S. Const., amend. I, amend. XIV | |
Marsh v. Alabama, 326 U.S. 501 (1946), was a case decided by the US Supreme Court, which ruled that a state trespassing statute could not be used to prevent the distribution of religious materials on a town's sidewalk even though the sidewalk was part of a privately-owned company town. The Court based its ruling on the provisions of the First Amendment and Fourteenth Amendment.