People v. Smith

• Decision Date: 26 April 1932
• Parties: PEOPLE, on Complaint of DOYLE, v. SMITH.
• Court: New York Court of Appeals Court of Appeals

259 N.Y. 48

180 N.E. 891

PEOPLE, on Complaint of DOYLE,

v.SMITH.

Court of Appeals of New York.

April 26, 1932.

Charles Smith was convicted of conducting public worship in violation of a city ordinance, requiring a license to preach in a public street, and from a judgment of the Court of Special Sessions (Appellate Part) (142 Misc. Rep. 769, 255 N. Y. S. 528), affirming the judgment of conviction, defendant appeals.

Reversed, and complaint dismissed.

Appeal from Court of Special Sessions of City of New York, Appellate part.

Albert E. Kane, of New York City, for appellant.

Thomas C. T. Crain, Dist. Atty., of New York City (Joshua Egelson, Deputy Asst. Dist. Atty., of New York City, of counsel), for respondent.

CRANE, J.

The defendant is an atheist and has been convicted of talking atheism on the public streets of the city of New York. He is president of the American Association for the Advancement of Atheism, and on the 20th day of October, 1931, was trying to advance it to a select group at Columbus Circle and Fifty-Ninth street. He was arrested, tried, and convicted of doing the very thing he was denouncing-of conducting public worship in violation of the city ordinance.

Section 20 of article 3 of chapter 23 of the Ordinances of the City of New York is headed ‘Public worship,’ and reads as follows: ‘No person shall be concerned or instrumental in collecting or promoting any assemblage of persons for public worship or exhortation, or under any pretense therefor, in any park, street, or other public place; provided, that a clergyman or minister of any denomination, or any person responsible to or regularly associated with any church or incorporated missionary society, or any lay-preacher, or lay-reader may conduct religious services in any public place or places specified in a permit therefor which may be granted and issued by the police commissioner. This section shall not be construed to prevent any congregation of the Baptist denomination from assembling in a proper place for the purpose of performing the rites of baptism, according to the ceremonies of that church.’

The thing prohibited by this ordinance is the collecting of persons for public worship or exhortation to worship on the public streets without a permit. Worship has a well-known and well-defined meaning in common use among the people of this community. It means any form of religious service showing reverence for the Divine Being, or exhortation to obedience to or the following of the mandates of such Being. Many are the ways of approach, and varied are the methods of showing this reverence, but even the societies for the advancement of social welfare find incentive in carrying out what is interpreted as a divine purpose or will. All this the defendant ridiculed and denounced as being a superstition. According to him and his society, there is no Divine Being. Instead of gathering an...