Breard v. City of Alexandria

Breard v. City of Alexandria, 341 U.S. 622 (1951), was a United States Supreme Court case, which held that door-to-door solicitation could be restricted without violating the Due Process Clause, the First Amendment or the Commerce Clause.

Breard v. City of Alexandria
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued March 7–8, 1951 Decided June 4, 1951
Full case name	Jack H. Breard v. City of Alexandria, LA
Citations	341 U.S. 622 (more) 71 S. Ct. 920; 95 L. Ed. 2d 1233
Court membership
Chief Justice Fred M. Vinson Associate Justices Hugo Black · Stanley F. Reed Felix Frankfurter · William O. Douglas Robert H. Jackson · Harold H. Burton Tom C. Clark · Sherman Minton
Case opinions
Majority	Reed, joined by Frankfurter, Jackson, Burton, Clark, Minton
Dissent	Vinson, joined by Douglas
Dissent	Black, joined by Douglas
Laws applied
U.S. Const. amend. I

Background

Jack H. Breard was a regional representative for Keystone Readers Services, Inc. Breard was arrested for going door-to-door in the City of Alexandria, Louisiana soliciting magazine subscriptions. Breard was arrested for violating an ordinance that required him to get permission from the owners of the residences where he was soliciting.

Opinion of the Court

The case went all the way to the Supreme Court, which ruled the Breard's First Amendment Rights were not violated and that door-to-door solicitation could be restricted without unduly interfering with interstate commerce, and without violating Due Process.

Justice Reed's majority opinion said that the state police power to regulate soliciting does not unreasonably burden or conflict with the due process freedom to engage in legitimate business: "The problem is legislative where there are reasonable bases for legislative action".

In a dissenting opinion, Justice Black held that the decision went against recent doctrine. Vinson and Douglas wrote another dissenting opinion, calling the ordinance "flat prohibition" and arguing that it discriminated against interstate commerce because it made an exception for local farm products.

External links

• Text of Breard v. City of Alexandria, 341 U.S. 622 (1951) is available from: CourtListener Justia Library of Congress OpenJurist