Marsh v. Alabama

The town of Chickasaw, Alabama was owned by the Gulf Shipbuilding Company but functioned like any ordinary town, bordering and indistinguishable from neighboring municipalities. Marsh, a Jehovah's Witness, stood on a company-owned sidewalk distributing religious literature and was told no permit would be issued to her; when she continued anyway, she was arrested and convicted under Alabama state law. She argued her conviction violated her First and Fourteenth Amendment rights, but the state courts rejected that argument, and she appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.