COUNCIL AND COURT: THE HANDBILL ORDINANCES, 1889-1939

Authors

James K. Lindsay, University of Michigan Law SchoolFollow

Abstract

The extent to which a municipality may regulate or prohibit the distribution of handbills and circulars on its streets and from house to house has been thoroughly considered by the courts in the last two years. These recent cases reveal one phase of a battle historically rich and presently important to the American people. It is the thrust of a principle-the right of free speech and press-against the encroachments of municipal governing bodies concerned with the practical problem of keeping their streets clean. The municipal official sees the problem thus: "One of the small but aggravating nuisances which most cities encounter in their municipal housekeeping is the littering of streets by handbills."

Recommended Citation

James K. Lindsay, COUNCIL AND COURT: THE HANDBILL ORDINANCES, 1889-1939, 39 Mich. L. Rev. 561 (1941).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol39/iss4/4