Prince v. Massachusetts

United States Supreme Court

321 U.S. 158 (1944)

Relevant factsFree

Sarah Prince (defendant), a Jehovah's Witness, allowed her nine-year-old niece Betty Simmons, also an ordained minister of the faith, to accompany her distributing and selling religious literature on public streets, resulting in Prince's conviction under a Massachusetts child-labor statute prohibiting specified child labor in public places; Prince appealed, arguing the law as applied violated her and the child's religious liberty and parental rights.

IssueFree

Whether a state law that prohibits specified child labor on streets and public places is constitutional as applied to a nine-year-old Jehovah's Witness offering religious materials in exchange for money.

Holding & reasoning

The court resolved the question by applying the controlling rule to the facts and explaining precisely why the outcome followed. Its reasoning ties the doctrine to the record so you can reproduce the analysis on an exam.

Procedural history, concurrence & dissent

This section traces the case from the trial court through appeal and lays out how each opinion lands. Separate writings sharpen the majority's limits and flag the arguments most likely to resurface in class.

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