JOHN J. HURLEY AND SOUTH BOSTON ALLIED WAR VETERANS COUNCIL, PETITIONERS v. IRISH-AMERICAN GAY, LESBIAN AND BISEXUAL GROUP OF BOSTON, ETC., ET AL., 515 U.S. 557

Summary

Petitioners, a parade organizer and a parade council, organized a special annual parade. Petitioners controlled who the parade participants would be. When petitioners denied respondent, a gay organization, access to their parade, respondent sued petitioners claiming their conduct violated respondent rights under Mass. Gen. Laws § 272:98 (1992). The trial court entered judgment in favor of respondent and the state supreme court affirmed. The United States Supreme Court granted certiorari and reversed the judgments of the lower courts. The Court reasoned the requirement to admit a parade group expressing a message not of the private organizers' own choosing violated petitioners' First Amendment, U.S. Const. amend. I, rights, because in the content of free speech, outside of the commercial advertising setting, a state could not compel affirmance of a belief with which the speaker disagrees.