Court Cases Cited Within This Web Site
Murdoch v. Pennsylvania, 319 U.S. 105 (1943)
 

A case in which a group of Jehovah’s Witnesses were charged in the City of Jeannette, Pennsylvania with violating a local ordinance of selling wares without obtaining a license and paying the associated tax.

The materials being “sold” were religious booklets, pamphlets, and tracts. The materials were not actually sold, but by practice members of the groups simply requested a suggested donation. This door-to-door effort of sharing literature was seen as part of their evangelical efforts.

The Supreme Court agreed that such efforts were protected by the Constitution’s First Amendment. The Court also noted that some effort must be made to distinguish when religion is being practiced and when a commercial activity is being exercised.

The Court did not deny that all religious groups were exempt from government financial obligations and duties.

With those distinctions, the Court noted that this particular license tax was, “a flat tax imposed on the exercise of a privilege granted by the Bill of Rights. A state may not impose a charge for the enjoyment of a right granted by the federal constitution. Thus, it may not exact a license tax for the privilege of carrying on interstate commerce, although it may tax the property used in, or the income derived from, that commerce, so long as those taxes are not discriminatory… The power to impose a license tax on the exercise of these freedoms is indeed as potent as the power of censorship which this Court has repeatedly struck down.”

Full text: Murdoch v. Pennsylvania, 319 U.S. 105 (1943)