Watchtower Bible & Tract Society of New York, Inc. v. Village of Stratton
E365012
Watchtower Bible & Tract Society of New York, Inc. v. Village of Stratton is a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court case that struck down a village ordinance requiring door-to-door canvassers to obtain a permit, holding that it violated First Amendment protections for anonymous religious and political advocacy.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Watchtower Bible & Tract Society of New York, Inc. v. Village of Stratton canonical | 2 |
| Watchtower v. Village of Stratton | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T3516429 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
Target entity: Watchtower Bible & Tract Society of New York, Inc. v. Village of Stratton Context triple: [Murdock v. Pennsylvania, citedIn, Watchtower Bible & Tract Society of New York, Inc. v. Village of Stratton]
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A.
Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire
Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire is a 1942 U.S. Supreme Court case that established the "fighting words" doctrine, holding that certain personally abusive epithets are not protected by the First Amendment.
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B.
Engel v. Vitale
Engel v. Vitale is a 1962 U.S. Supreme Court case that ruled state-sponsored prayer in public schools unconstitutional under the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
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C.
County of Allegheny v. ACLU
County of Allegheny v. ACLU is a 1989 U.S. Supreme Court case that refined the interpretation of the Establishment Clause by addressing the constitutionality of religious holiday displays on government property.
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D.
Cooley v. Board of Wardens
Cooley v. Board of Wardens is an 1852 U.S. Supreme Court decision that helped define the scope of the Commerce Clause by allowing states to regulate certain local aspects of commerce, such as port pilotage, without violating federal authority.
-
E.
Nebbia v. New York
Nebbia v. New York is a 1934 U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld state regulation of milk prices and marked a major retreat from the Lochner-era limits on economic regulation under the Due Process Clause.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
Target entity: Watchtower Bible & Tract Society of New York, Inc. v. Village of Stratton Target entity description: Watchtower Bible & Tract Society of New York, Inc. v. Village of Stratton is a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court case that struck down a village ordinance requiring door-to-door canvassers to obtain a permit, holding that it violated First Amendment protections for anonymous religious and political advocacy.
-
A.
Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire
Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire is a 1942 U.S. Supreme Court case that established the "fighting words" doctrine, holding that certain personally abusive epithets are not protected by the First Amendment.
-
B.
Engel v. Vitale
Engel v. Vitale is a 1962 U.S. Supreme Court case that ruled state-sponsored prayer in public schools unconstitutional under the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
-
C.
County of Allegheny v. ACLU
County of Allegheny v. ACLU is a 1989 U.S. Supreme Court case that refined the interpretation of the Establishment Clause by addressing the constitutionality of religious holiday displays on government property.
-
D.
Cooley v. Board of Wardens
Cooley v. Board of Wardens is an 1852 U.S. Supreme Court decision that helped define the scope of the Commerce Clause by allowing states to regulate certain local aspects of commerce, such as port pilotage, without violating federal authority.
-
E.
Nebbia v. New York
Nebbia v. New York is a 1934 U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld state regulation of milk prices and marked a major retreat from the Lochner-era limits on economic regulation under the Due Process Clause.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (51)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
First Amendment case
ⓘ
United States Supreme Court case ⓘ door-to-door solicitation case ⓘ freedom of association case ⓘ freedom of press case ⓘ freedom of religion case ⓘ freedom of speech case ⓘ |
| arguedDate | 2002-02-26 ⓘ |
| citation | 536 U.S. 150 ⓘ |
| concurrenceBy | Antonin Scalia ⓘ |
| court | Supreme Court of the United States ⓘ |
| decisionDate | 2002-06-17 ⓘ |
| dissentBy | William H. Rehnquist ⓘ |
| docketNumber | 00-1737 ⓘ |
| fullName | Watchtower Bible & Tract Society of New York, Inc. v. Village of Stratton self-link ⓘ |
| holding |
A village ordinance requiring a permit for door-to-door advocacy violates the First Amendment as applied to religious and political canvassing.
ⓘ
The ordinance impermissibly burdens anonymous political and religious speech. ⓘ The ordinance is unconstitutional because it is not narrowly tailored to serve the village’s interests in preventing fraud, crime, and undue annoyance. ⓘ |
| issue | constitutionality of permit requirement for door-to-door advocacy ⓘ |
| joinedByInMajority |
Anthony M. Kennedy
ⓘ
Clarence Thomas ⓘ David H. Souter ⓘ Ruth Bader Ginsburg ⓘ Sandra Day O’Connor ⓘ Stephen G. Breyer ⓘ William H. Rehnquist ⓘ |
| jurisdiction |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| legalProvisionInterpreted |
First Amendment to the United States Constitution
ⓘ
Fourteenth Amendment ⓘ
surface form:
Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
|
| locationOfOrdinance | Stratton, Ohio NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| majorityOpinionBy | John Paul Stevens ⓘ |
| page | 150 ⓘ |
| petitioner |
Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York
ⓘ
surface form:
Watchtower Bible & Tract Society of New York, Inc.
individual Jehovah’s Witnesses ⓘ |
| relatedCase |
Cantwell v. Connecticut
ⓘ
Martin v. City of Struthers ⓘ McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Commission ⓘ |
| relatedTo |
JehovahsWitnesses
ⓘ
surface form:
Jehovah’s Witnesses
permit requirements for canvassing ⓘ |
| reporter | United States Reports ⓘ |
| respondent | Village of Stratton, Ohio ⓘ |
| shortName |
Watchtower Bible & Tract Society of New York, Inc. v. Village of Stratton
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
surface form:
Watchtower v. Village of Stratton
|
| topic |
anonymous speech
ⓘ
door-to-door canvassing ⓘ municipal regulation of solicitation ⓘ political advocacy ⓘ religious proselytizing ⓘ |
| volume | 536 ⓘ |
| voteDissent | 1 ⓘ |
| voteMajority | 8 ⓘ |
| yearDecided | 2002 ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Subject: Watchtower Bible & Tract Society of New York, Inc. v. Village of Stratton Description of subject: Watchtower Bible & Tract Society of New York, Inc. v. Village of Stratton is a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court case that struck down a village ordinance requiring door-to-door canvassers to obtain a permit, holding that it violated First Amendment protections for anonymous religious and political advocacy.
Referenced by (3)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.