State v. Langston

• Citation: 11 S.E.2d 1,195 S.C. 190
• Decision Date: 02 March 1940
• Docket Number: 15030.
• Parties: STATE v. LANGSTON et al.
• Court: South Carolina Supreme Court

11 S.E.2d 1

195 S.C. 190

STATE v. LANGSTON et al.

No. 15030.

Supreme Court of South Carolina

March 2, 1940

Grover C. Powell, of Atlanta, Ga., for appellants.

Samuel R. Watt, Sol., and C. Y. Brown, both of Spartanburg, for respondent.

E. C DENNIS, Acting Associate Justice.

This case originated in the court of the magistrate of Spartanburg County, the defendants being charged with breach of the peace. They were tried before a jury in the Magistrate's Court and convicted and sentenced. The appeal from the Magistrate's Court was heard by Judge Gaston while presiding in the Court of General Sessions in Spartanburg County, and, by an order dated October 27, 1939, he affirmed the judgment and sentence of the Magistrate's Court and dismissed the appeal. It seems from reading the testimony that the defendants belong to a sect known as "Jehovah's Witnesses", and that they were undertaking to propagate their belief in a most unusual way. On the Sunday morning in question there was evidence that they would go upon the premises and on the piazzas of private homes and play victrola records and cause crowds to gather around and that they also used a car with a loud speaker which they drove about the streets announcing their religious beliefs to the public generally. In a very long brief filed by the attorneys for these defendants, the brief covering 59 pages, it is attempted to bring into this case the question of freedom of religion and freedom of the press, and the greater part of the brief is devoted to these two questions, with many citations of authority. This question in no way entered into the case, for the magistrate distinctly made such ruling, and in submitting the case to the jury no such element was permitted to enter into the jury's consideration.

In this State there are so many religious beliefs, so varied in what they teach and with such great difference, that one of the most fruitful, and yet fruitless, sources of argument is some theological question. It certainly cannot be said that there is not in this State an absolute freedom of religion. A man may believe what kind of religion he pleases or no religion and as long as he practices his belief without a breach of the peace, he will not be disturbed.

The attorney representing these defendants before the magistrate and before the Circuit Court, and before this court is a lawyer from Atlanta, Georgia, who is unfamiliar, probably with the method of bringing exceptions to this court. On page 2 of the transcript of the record there begins a statement of exceptions which goes through page 5. The first 18 of them seem...