some matter which, standing alone would be immune from the
restriction.[154] A municipal ordinance forbidding any person to ring
door bells, or otherwise summon to the door the occupants of any
residence, for the purpose of distributing to them circulars or
handbills was held to infringe freedom of speech and of the press as
applied to a person distributing advertisements of a religious
meeting.[155] But an ordinance forbidding door to door peddling or
canvassing unless it is invited or requested by the occupant of a
private residence is valid.[156]

CENSORSHIP

Freedom from previous restraints has never been regarded as absolute.
The principle that words having the quality of verbal acts might be
enjoined by court order was established in Gompers _v._ Bucks Stove and
Range Co.;[157] and in Near _v._ Minnesota[158] the Court, speaking
through Chief Justice Hughes, even while extending Blackstone's
condemnation of censorship to a statute which authorized the enjoining
of publications alleged to be persistently defamatory, criticized it as
being in some respects too sweeping. Indeed, the distinction between
prevention and punishment appears to have played little or no part in
determining when picketing may be forbidden in labor disputes.[159] In
Chaplinsky _v._ New Hampshire[160] and Board of Education _v._
Barnette,[161] the opinions indicated that the power of Government is
measured by the same principles in both situations. In the former
Justice Murphy asserted: "There are certain well-defined and narrowly
limited classes of speech, the prevention and punishment of which have
never been thought to raise any constitutional problem. These include
the lewd and obscene, the profane, the libelous, and the insulting or
'fighting' words--those which by their very utterance inflict injury or
tend to incite an immediate breach of the peace. It has been well
observed that such are no essential part of any exposition of ideas, and
are of such slight social value as a step to truth that any benefit that
may be derived from them is clearly outweighed by the social interest in
order and morality."[162] To like effect, in Board of Education _v._
Barnette, Justice Jackson set it down as "a commonplace that censorship
or suppression of expression of opinion is tolerated by our Constitution
only when the expression presents a clear and present danger of action
of a kind the State is empowered to prevent and punish."[163]

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