The name Green River Ordinance is given to a common United States city ordinance prohibiting door-to-door solicitation. Under such an ordinance, it is illegal for any business to sell their items door-to-door without express permission from the household beforehand. Some versions prohibit all organizations, including non-profit charitable, political, and religious groups, from soliciting or canvassing any household that makes it clear, in writing, that it does not want such solicitations (generally with a "No Trespassing" or "No Solicitations" sign posted.)
The ordinance is named for the city of Green River, Wyoming, which in 1931 was the first city to enact it. The ordinance was unsuccessfully challenged on constitutional grounds by the Fuller Brush Company in 1932.
The ordinance has been challenged before the Supreme Court on several occasions.
Famous quotes containing the words green, river and/or ordinance:
“With sudden roar and aged pine-tree falls,—
One crash, the death-hymn of the perfect tree,
Declares the close of its green century.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Sitting in that dusky wilderness, under that dark mountain, by the bright river which was full of reflected light, still I heard the wood thrush sing, as if no higher civilization could be attained. By this time the night was upon us.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“I fear it is the effect of this ordinance to clothe Jesus with an authority which he never claimed and which distracts the mind of the worshipper.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)