Court to decide on permits for door-to-door activity

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court agreed Monday to confront a particularly tough separation of church and state issue by deciding whether a town can require permits from Jehovah's Witnesses or others who want to solicit door-to-door.

Jehovah's Witnesses routinely go door-to-door to distribute literature and recruit believers. A village ordinance in Stratton, Ohio, requires members of the faith -- and others, from door-to-door salesmen to politicians rounding up votes -- to get the mayor's permission before soliciting and to display the permit for homeowners who ask to see it.

Jehovah's Witnesses sued the village in a church-state case with broad free-speech implications, and the justices agreed Monday to hear their appeal of a lower court's decision for Stratton.

"Permission to preach comes from God and not man," said Paul Polidoro, attorney for Jehovah's Witnesses, who have not solicited door-to-door in Stratton during the three years the permits have been required.

Village leaders said permits are free and nobody has ever been denied one. The ordinance is reasonable in "weighing the First Amendment rights of canvassers against the right of homeowners to security, privacy and peacefulness in their homes," they told the Supreme Court.

The Constitution's First Amendment guarantees both free speech and the free exercise of religion. An appellate court ruled the ordinance does not discriminate against Witnesses because it demands the same permit of everybody.

Ruling by summer

The Supreme Court probably will hear the case early next year, with a ruling expected by summer. The justices restricted the issue to the First Amendment ramifications of requiring approval for all door-to-door advocacy, including political pamphleteering.

Stratton requires people planning solicitations to divulge to the mayor names, addresses for the past five years and names and addresses of their affiliations. A homeowner can demand to see the permit, and violators can be charged with misdemeanors.

Lawyers for the Jehovah's Witnesses said if church members were to complete permit requests, they would lose the right of citizens to practice their religion anonymously.

The court handled a related issue in 1995. Justices ruled that Ohio could not fine a woman for distributing unsigned leaflets opposing a proposed local school tax.

"This is a tricky one," said Gregory Magarian, who teaches constitutional law at Villanova University. "The X factor is how far is the court going to go in saying it's OK for the city to protect privacy in the home this way."