Kunz v. New York, 340 U.S. 290 (1951), was a landmark United States Supreme Court case that held a requirement mandating a permit to speak on religious issues in public was unconstitutional.

Kunz helped establish the principle that government restrictions on speech must be narrowly tailored to avoid improperly limiting expression protected by the First Amendment.

In this case, the Court held that laws granting public officials broad discretion to restrain speech about religious issues in advance constitute an invalid prior restraint, violating the First Amendment.

The Court reversed the 1948 conviction of Baptist minister Carl J. Kunz, who was found guilty of violating a New York City ordinance required a permit from the police commissioner to hold religious services on public streets.

However, the Supreme Court ultimately ruled that New York's ordinance was overly broad because it failed to provide any standards for administrators to determine who should receive permits to speak about religious issues.