CONSTITUTIONAL LAW-FREEDOM OF THE PRESS-FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND ASSEMBLY-POLICE POWER

The recent decision by the federal district court in the case of Committee for Industrial Organization v. Hague has brought the civil liberties issue to the forefront again. Acting under a city ordinance, defendant's mayor, director of public safety, and chief of police refused to issue a permit to plaintiff labor union to distribute circulars, hold public meetings, or display placards in Jersey City, and excluded plaintiff's members from the city, acting under the belief that their doctrines were "un-American," and that their presence and activities were likely to provoke the city's inhabitants to breaches of the peace. It was conceded by defendants that no previous circulars, placards or speeches of plaintiff had been of a nature other than peaceful, and that they had not consisted of incitements to violence.