Relevant Cases on Duty to Obey

1. If a law is facially invalid, a person can ignore it. They do so at the risk, however, that a court will not find the law facially invalid.

• Lovell v. City of Griffin, 303 US 444 (1938)
• Kunz v. New York, 340 US 290 (1951)
• Mills v. Alabama, 384 US 214 (1966)
• Shuttlesworth v. Birmingham (II), 394 US 147 (1969), at 151

2. If a law is valid but is administered in an unconstitutional way, rather than disobeying the law, the person must challenge the law in court.

• Poulos v. New Hampshire, 345 US 395 (1953), at 409

3. A person may not disobey a court order with which he/she disagrees. The proper way to challenge a questionable court order is through the judicial process--not by defiance of that order.

• Walker v. Birmingham, 388 US 307 (1967), at 320-321.
• U.S. v. Dickinson, 465 F.2d 496 (5th Cir. 1972)