The high court ruled for a local congregation of Jehovah´s Witnesses and the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, a nonprofit publisher of church literature, in striking down a law regulating uninvited peddling and solicitation, Reuters reported.
The justices, by an 8-1 vote, ruled the ordinance in Stratton, Ohio, infringed on the rights of the Jehovah´s Witnesses, whose members go from house to house evangelizing.
Justice John Paul Stevens, for the court majority, rejected the Ohio village´s argument that its ordinance was valid because it protects the privacy of residents and prevents fraud or other types of crime.
