Door-to-Door Political Groups Allowed In Strongsville

STRONGSVILLE, OH — 'Tis the season for door-to-door political groups to make their rounds. Despite myriad complaints, the city's police department is reminding residents these groups are exempt from Strongsville's solicitor ordinances.

"Anyone who has turned on a TV in the last few weeks knows that this is the election season. We have received many calls the last few days in regards to political groups going door to door," the police department said on Facebook. "These groups are exempt from our city ordinances about solicitors as ruled by the U.S. Supreme Court. Included in these exemptions are the times they are allowed to knock on doors. Please call us if you observe anything suspicious, but keep in mind the exemptions to these ordinances."

Strongsville's ordinances do prohibit solicitors from knocking on resident doors without first obtaining a permit from the city's police department. The lone listed exception to that rule, in the ordinance, are newspaper carriers (who are typically children).

Ohio actually has a long and complicated legal history with door-to-door solicitation. In the early 2000s, the village of Stratton, a tiny place with less than 300 residents, situated near the Ohio River and West Virginia, prohibited Jehovah's Witnesses from visiting villagers without first obtaining a permit with the local government.

Stratton's laws also dictated that political advocates obtain permits. That's part of where the legal problems began.

The Jehovah's Witnesses challenged the constitutionality of the ordinance, particularly as it pertained to free speech under the First Amendment. The religious sect brought a lawsuit against Stratton, a case which worked its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, the Washington Post reported in 2002.

The Court found in favor of the Jehovah's Witnesses and deemed Stratton's law unconstitutional. The lone dissenting voice on the Court, Justice William Rehnquist noted that anyone that asked for a solicitation permit in good faith could be granted one. He was overruled by an 8-1 majority on the court.

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