In Carey v. Brown (1980) 447 U.S. 455, the court found unconstitutional an Illinois statute that prohibited picketing on the public streets and sidewalks adjacent to residences but exempted picketing of a place of employment in a labor dispute. (Carey, supra, 447 U.S. at pp. 457, 471.) The court rejected the argument that the state's interest in allowing labor protests justified the differential treatment. "The central difficulty with this argument is that it forthrightly presupposes that labor picketing is more deserving of First Amendment protection than are public protests over other issues, particularly the important economic, social, and political subjects about which these appellees wish to demonstrate. We reject that proposition. " (Id. at p. 466.)