Hurley v. Irish-American Gay, Lesbian, & Bisexual Group of Boston case brief

Hurley v. Irish-American Gay, Lesbian, & Bisexual Group of Boston case brief summary
515 U.S. 557 (1995)

CASE SYNOPSIS

Appeal of judgment on writ of certiorari from Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, which affirmed lower court's ruling that concluded that the denial of respondent gay organization's application to march in a parade run by petitioners, a parade council and parade organizers, violated respondent's freedom of speech under Mass. Gen. Laws § 272:92A (1992).

CASE FACTS
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.

DISCUSSION

• 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. Constitutional Amendment 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.

CONCLUSION

Judgment of lower courts reversed, because the requirement to admit a parade group expressing a message not of the private organizers' own choosing violated the organizers'First Amendment rights.