In the 1948 case of Kovacs v. Cooper, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a city ordinance prohibiting loud and disturbing noise was not in violation of the First Amendment's guarantee to freedom of speech. The case arose when Frank Kovacs, an employee for a sound truck company, used his vehicle to broadcast music and commercial advertisements at high volumes throughout Trenton, New Jersey. After receiving numerous complaints from residents about the disruptive noise levels, local authorities arrested Kovacs under a city ordinance which prohibited "loud and raucous" noises on public streets. In response, Kovacs argued that this law violated his constitutional right to free speech. The Supreme Court disagreed with him by upholding the constitutionality of such ordinances as long as they are reasonable time-place-manner restrictions on speech rather than outright bans or content-based censorship measures; it found that cities have legitimate interests in preventing excessive noise disturbances within their jurisdictions while still allowing ample alternative channels for communication.

In the dissenting opinion for Kovacs v. Cooper, Justice Frankfurter argued that the majority's decision was an overreach of judicial power and a violation of states' rights to govern their own affairs. He contended that New Jersey had every right to enact laws protecting its citizens from nuisances such as noise pollution, which in this case was caused by Kovacs' use of loudspeakers on his truck for advertising purposes. According to him, it wasn't appropriate for the Supreme Court to intervene in matters like these unless there were clear constitutional issues at stake. Furthermore, he disagreed with the majority's interpretation of freedom of speech under First Amendment protections; he believed that regulating volume or manner does not necessarily infringe upon content or message being conveyed and thus doesn’t violate free speech rights.