By David Dayton McKean
Failing to obtain halls, persons who are in disfavor have
sought to hold open-air meetings in streets or parks, but in
so they ran into an ordinance adopted in 1930 which
supreme Court in 1939 called `void upon its face,' but
h had been enforced for nine years. It forbade `public
assembly in or upon the public streets, highways, public
parks or public buildings' without a police permit, which
could be refused by the director of public safety when he
thought proper `for the purpose of preventing riots, disturbances,
or disorderly assemblage.' It was upon this ordinance
that the C.I.O., the American Civil Liberties Union, and
various individuals brought suit for an injunction in 1938.
In the late autumn of 1937 the organizers of the C.I.O. attempted
without success to hire halls in Jersey City. The
American Civil Liberties Union became interested and also
tried unsuccessfully to obtain a meeting-place; so on December 17,
1937, they applied for a permit for an outdoor meeting
on any one of various dates at any place the city would allow.
A protracted correspondence with Daniel Casey, Director of
Public Safety, followed in which, among other matters, he
wanted to know who their speakers would be. Meanwhile a
committee of veterans, most of whom were Jersey City employees,
protested against the granting of any permit and,
according to newspaper reports, threatened violence if a
meeting should be held. After the dates had passed for which
application had been made, in a letter in which he pointed out
the danger of direct action from the veterans, the permit was
denied by Commissioner Casey. The C.I.O. and the American
Civil Liberties Union joined forces, and in January,
1938, brought a suit in equity in the United States District
Court in Newark for an injunction against the Mayor and
the other commissioners to compel them to issue a permit.
As soon as a considerable amount of publicity appeared on
the denial of the right to hold public meetings in Jersey City,
all sorts of organizations applied for permits. The Whig-Cliosophic Society of Princeton University, a debating society,
sought a permit for a speech by Senator Borah; it was
denied. The Independent Speakers' Association of New
York City, among whose members were Thomas E. Dewey,
Fiorello La Guardia, Newbold Morris, and Joseph E.
McGoldrick, applied for permission to hold an open-air
meeting in May to discuss the `rights of freedom of speech
guaranteed by the Constitution.' Their application was denied.
The Hudson County Committee for Labor Defense
and Civil Rights was refused permission to use Pershing
Field, which is public property. (For details see Transcript, passim.)
The Socialist Party sought an open-air permit for Norman
Thomas, which was denied. On April 30, 1938, he drove to
Journal Square with the intention of making a speech without
a permit. As soon as he got out of his automobile he was
seized by the police, forcibly put into a police car, and taken
to the New York ferry dock. He was held until a boat came
in, and he was then put aboard. To clinch the matter, the
police formed a line at the entrance to the boat to make sure
that he did not jump back. He was not beaten or man-handled otherwise, though other persons in the crowd at Journal
Square were not equally fortunate. Thomas tried, without
success, to obtain the prosecution of the officers under the
so-called Lindbergh law.
The C.I.O. and the American Civil Liberties Union obtained
from District Judge William Clark in Newark the injunction
they sought; Jersey City carried the case to the
Circuit Court of Appeals, where it was affirmed, and to the
United States Supreme Court, where it was modified but
affirmed. (Frank Hague et al. v. the Committee for Industrial Organization et al., 307
U.S. 500 (1939).
In its decision holding the city ordinance unconstitutional the Court said:
Such use of the streets and public places has, from ancient
times, been a part of the privileges, immunities, rights, and
liberties of citizens. The privilege of a citizen of the United
States to use the streets and parks for a communication of
views on national questions may be regulated in the interest
of all ... but it must not, in the guise of regulation be abridged
or denied.... Uncontrolled official suppression of the privilege
cannot be made a substitute for the duty to maintain
order in connection with the exercise of the right.
This Web version, edited by GET NJ, COPYRIGHT 2003
Meanwhile, veterans' organizations, the Chamber of Commerce, other so-called civic groups, certain religious groups,
and public employees of Jersey City and Hudson County
were, it is asserted, being exhorted and organized by political
lieutenants and colonels to enter their protests against those
who would talk, and to support Hague's policies of repression.
The obvious strategy was to create a feeling of militant opposition
that would spell real trouble if the meetings for which
permits had been applied for were held. A parade of such a
nature was held on the evening of an announced meeting at
which Congressman Bernard of Minnesota and Congressman
O'Connell of Montana were to speak. When it appeared that
the crowd might have been aroused to a pitch of hostility that
promised violence and possible bloodshed, the meeting was
called off. Under similar circumstances and in a less crowded
area, Mr. O'Connell was again forced to cancel a speech and
was taken into `protective custody' by the police. (Report on Civil Rights of the Junior Bar Conference of the American Bar Association (1938), p. 22)
Commissioner Casey testified in Newark at the trial of the
C.I.O. case that there was no public place in Jersey City, no
Hyde Park or Union Square, where speeches might be made
free from police interference; the police control was complete.
He admitted, however, that veterans' organizations and
others held parades and meetings without permits on the
nights when O'Connell and Thomas were denied them. (Transcript, p. 721.) He
aid further that he would deny the right of people to assemble
in Journal Square `to protest against Frank Hague,
even though there is to be no speaker. (Ibid., p. 715.) The Supreme Court,
in its opinion, called this administration of the ordinance
'arbitrary.' While permits were denied to his opponents, the
Mayor put on one of the biggest parades and rallies of his
career.
Wherever the title of streets and parks may rest, they have
immemorially been held in trust for the use of the public and,
time out of mind, have been used for purposes of assembly,
communicating thoughts between citizens and discussing
public questions.
Thus the Mayor's view `that public officials should inject
themselves in' and consider free speech `in its proper manner'
when they presume or expect `there is disorder and
bloodshed in danger' was flatly rejected by the Supreme
Court.
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