Prince v. Massachusetts, 321 U.S. 158 (1944), was a Supreme Court of the United States case which held that the government has broad authority to regulate the actions and treatment of children.

The child labor laws that she was charged with violating stipulated that no boys under 12 and no girls under 18 were permitted to sell literature or other goods on public thoroughfares.

In a 5–4 decision, with Justice Rutledge writing the majority opinion, the Supreme Court upheld the Massachusetts laws restricting the right of children to sell religious literature.

Its power to attain them is broad enough to reach these peripheral instances in which the parent's supervision may reduce but cannot eliminate entirely the ill effects of the prohibited conduct.

[1] Justice Frank Murphy dissented: "Religious freedom is too sacred a right to be restricted or prohibited in any degree without convincing proof that a legitimate interest of the state is in grave danger."