Evening star., 1939-06-07
Jersey City Drafts
New Restrictions on
Public Speeches
Mayor Hague Orders
Ordinance to Conform
To Court Ruling
BACKGROUND

as q jorhm, Mayor Frank Hague
and city officials adopted ordi-
nance banning such meetings.
American CiuA Liberties Union
and the C. I. o. fought the ban
and Norman Thomas in an al
tempt to make an open-ar ad-
dress Uds roughly handled. Le-
gal battle started and last tDeek
the United States Supreme Court
1nualidated the ordinance.
BY the Associated Press
JERSEY CITY, N. j.. June T.
New restrictions on street meetings
and speeches We're drafted TODAY
for Mayor Frank Hague, who or
dered them embodied in a new Or
dlnance aimed at replacing one in
validated by the United States Su-
preme Court.
Moving swiftly in the wake of
the courts decision that it was un-
constitutional for Jersey City to
prohibit the c. I. O. and others
from use of the streets, Mayor Hague
announced the new ordinance would
be introduced at the next city COM
mission meeting. two weeks hence.
THE ordinance contemplated, +"
Mayor Hague said, SO = will come
directly within the letter and spirit
of the opinion of the Supreme Court,
and will designate several prom
inent streets and public places as
meeting places to be used by all
who desire to speak upon the pub
lie streets of our city"
Mass Meeting Arranged.
Also moving swiftly under Mon
days court ruling. which, among
other things, nullified the old or
dlnance regulating open-air meet
ings, the American Civil Liberties
Union and allied groups arranged
a mass meeting for next Monday
night at Journal Square, the citys
hub.
The meeting originally was
planned for Friday night, but was
moved ahead because Mayor Hague,
leader of q group seeking adoption
OF State constitutional amendment
to permit horse-race betting, pre-
viously had scheduled a journal
Square meeting for that night, when
voters will be asked to rally support
for the amendment.
A. c. L. U. headquarters in New
York said Mondays meeting lis not
in any sense an invasion of Jersey
City by outsiders. 1t is a demon
stration, chiefly by New Jersey resi-
dents themselves, of the fact that
civil rights in Jersey City, as else
where. are at last established.
Believed Ordinance Legal.
Mayor Hague in his statement to-
day said he and other city officials
had believed the ordinance was
constitutional and in no way vio-
lated civil rights. adding:
SO . for the past 25 years during
which I have been connected with
the government of Jersey City thou
sands Of permits for open-air meet
lngs have been granted.
"Al religious groups and associa-
tions were given permits = =, and
the proponents of every known
political party and belief, including
Communists, were allowed to speak
on public streets without the slight
est hinderance.
NO applications were denied nor
was there ever raised any
question Of the deprivation of the
right Of free speech prior to the
controversy which led up to these
proceedings.
"1t was not until radical groups
sought to use the public streets of
Jersey City as a forum that the
availing themselves of
the ordinance. denied them a permit
to speak on the streets -. This
denial - was deemed in the in
terest of preserving peace and good
order in our city"