Saia v. New York, 334 U.S. 558 (1948), was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that an ordinance which prohibited the use of sound amplification devices except with permission of the Chief of Police was unconstitutional on its face because it established a prior restraint on the right of free speech in violation of the First Amendment.

[1] Saia, a minister of the Jehovah's Witnesses, obtained from the Lockport, New York Chief of Police permission to use sound equipment mounted on his car to amplify lectures on religious subjects.

The court upheld the ordinance against the contention that it violated appellant's rights of freedom of speech, assembly, and worship under the Federal Constitution.

Justice William O. Douglas delivered the opinion of the Court, writing: We hold that 3 of this ordinance is unconstitutional on its face, for it establishes a previous restraint on the [334 U.S. 558, 560] right of free speech in violation of the First Amendment which is protected by the Fourteenth Amendment against State action.

The statute is not narrowly drawn to regulate the hours or places of use of loud-speakers, or the volume of sound (the decibels) to which they must be adjusted.