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Protecting Free Speech!

Lake County, Ill., Residents Reflect on the Impact of a 2002 Historic Supreme Court Ruling as 20th Anniversary Nears

While Jehovah’s Witnesses have chosen to temporarily suspend their door-to-door
ministry due to the pandemic, their activity was almost permanently banned by one U.S.
village in the late 1990s — that is until the United States Supreme Court stepped in with a
historic 8-1 decision on June 17, 2002, declaring the local ordinance unconstitutional.
As the 20th anniversary of that precedent setting decision nears, some Lake County
residents wonder what their lives would be like if one of their neighbors had not knocked on their door and shared a life-changing message with them. Constitutional scholars marvel at the outsized impact the decision has had on the protection of free speech for all, agreeing with Justice Antonin Scalia’s opinion in the case, “The free-speech claim exempts everybody, thanks to Jehovah’s Witnesses.”

“I honestly don’t know where my life would be,” said Leydi Antunez of Lake County, who fondly remembers that knock on the door during a critical moment in her life. She remembers praying for answers from God, “When I was praying in tears — at that moment, I heard the knock on the door. “Now I’m living the best life ever,” she said.

The 2002 Supreme Court decision in Watchtower v. Village of Stratton, affirmed that a
local village ordinance in Stratton, Ohio, requiring a permit to knock on doors violated the
rights of any person who wanted to engage in free speech with their neighbor, including
Jehovah’s Witnesses who practice door-to-door evangelizing. The Court overturned two
lower court rulings that upheld the ordinance, and thus paved the way for all citizens to
maintain open dialogue with their neighbors on any number of issues including
environmental, civic, political or educational.

“Looking back on the two decades since the decision, it’s clear to see the wide-ranging
impact that Watchtower v. Stratton has had on free speech for all,” said Josh McDaniel,
director of the Religious Freedom Clinic at the Harvard Law School. “This is just the latest
of some 50 Supreme Court victories by Jehovah’s Witnesses that have helped establish
and broaden First Amendment jurisprudence throughout the last century.”

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The village of Stratton became a center of controversy in 1998 after the mayor personally
confronted four Jehovah’s Witnesses as they were driving out of the village after visiting
a resident. Subsequently, the village enacted the ordinance “Regulating Uninvited
Peddling and Solicitation Upon Private Property,” which required anyone wishing to
engage in door-to-door activity to obtain a permit from the mayor or face imprisonment.
Jehovah’s Witnesses viewed this ordinance as an infringement of freedom of speech,
free exercise of religion and freedom of press. Therefore, they brought a lawsuit in federal
court after the village refused to modify their enforcement of this ordinance.

“Our motive for initiating the case was clear: We wanted to remove any obstacle that
would prevent us from carrying out our scriptural obligation to preach the good news of
the Kingdom,” said Robert Hendriks, U.S. spokesman for Jehovah’s Witnesses. “Making it
a criminal offense to talk with a neighbor without seeking government approval is
offensive to many people, but particularly to God who commanded Christians to preach
the gospel.”

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While Leydi Antunez continues to engage in a productive ministry through letter writing, phone calling and virtual visits, she is looking forward to knocking on door again. “I want them to feel what I felt,” she said. “I want to help somebody like someone helped me.”

“We are thankful that we have the legal right to practice
our ministry from door to door,” said Hendriks. “When the
time is right and conditions are safe, we hope to visit our
neighbors in person once again.”

This victory is one of more than 250 rulings in cases brought by Jehovah’s Witnesses in
high courts around the world that have expanded the rights of people of all religious
faiths. “It's hard to point to any organization, let alone a religious organization, that has
had such a profound impact on the shaping of constitutional law over many decades in
the Supreme Court," said Harvard professor McDaniel.

For more information on the Stratton case, go to www.jw.org and type Stratton in the
search field

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