Source: https://lexroll.com/394-u-s-147/
Timestamp: 2019-04-25 18:00:44+00:00

Document:
Jack Greenberg, New York City, for petitioner.
Earl McBee, Birmingham, Ala., for respondent.
The petitioner stands convicted for violating an ordinance of Birmingham, Alabama, making it an offense to participate in any ‘parade or procession or other public demonstration’ without first obtaining a permit from the City Commission. The question before us is whether that conviction can be squared with the Constitution of the United States.
‘It shall be unlawful to organize or hold, or to assist in organizing or holding, or to take part or participate in, any parade or procession or other public demonstration on the streets or other public ways of the city, unless a permit therefore has been secured from the commission.
‘To secure such permit, written application shall be made to the commission, setting forth the probable number of persons, vehicles and animals which will be engaged in such parade, procession or other public demonstration, the purpose of which it is to be held or had, and the streets or other public ways over, along or in which it is desired to have or hold such parade, procession or other public demonstration. The commission shall grant a written permit for such parade, procession or other public demonstration, prescribing the streets or other public ways which may be used therefor, unless in its judgment the public welfare, peace, safety, health, decency, good order, morals or convenience require that it be refused. It shall be unlawful to use for such purposes any other streets or public ways than those set out in said permit.
The petitioner was convicted for violation of § 1159 and was sentenced to 90 days’ imprisonment at hard labor and an additional 48 days at hard labor in default of payment of a $75 fine and $24 costs. The Alabama Court of Appeals reversed the judgment of conviction, holding the evidence was insufficient ‘to show a procession which would require, under the terms of § 1159, the getting of a permit,’ that the ord nance had been applied in a discriminatory fashion, and that it was unconstitutional in imposing an ‘invidious prior restraint’ without ascertainable standards for the granting of permits. 43 Ala.App. 68, 95, 83, 180 So.2d 114, 139, 127. The Supreme Court of Alabama, however, giving the language of § 1159 an extraordinarily narrow construction, reversed the judgment of the Court of Appeals and reinstated the conviction. 281 Ala. 542, 206 So.2d 348. We granted certiorari to consider the petitioner’s constitutional claims, 390 U.S. 1023, 88 S.Ct. 1417, 20 L.Ed.2d 280.
There can be no doubt that the Birmingham ordinance, as it was written, conferred upon the City Commission virtually unbridled and absolute power to prohibit any ‘parade,’ ‘procession,’1 or ‘demonstration’ on the city’s streets or public ways. For in deciding whether or not to withhold a permit, the members of the Commission were to be guided only by their own ideas of ‘public welfare, peace, safety, health, decency, good order, morals or convenience.’ This ordinance as it was written, therefore, fell squarely within the ambit of the many decisions of this Court over the last 30 years, holding that a law subjecting the exercise of First Amendment freedoms to the prior restraint of a license, without narrow, objective, and definite standards to guide the licensing authority, is unconstitutional.2 ‘It is settled by a long line of recent decisions of this Court that an ordinance which, like this one, makes the peaceful enjoyment of freedoms which the Constitution guarantees contingent upon the uncontrolled will of an official—as by requiring a permit or license which may be granted or withheld in the discretion of such official—is an unconstitutional censorship or prior restraint upon the enjoyment of those freedoms.’ Staub v. City of Baxley, 355 U.S. 313, 322, 78 S.Ct. 277, 282, 2 L.Ed.2d 302. And our decisions have made clear that a person faced with such an unconstitutional licensing law may ignore it and engage with impunity in the exercise of the right of free expression for which the law purports to require a license.3 ‘The Constitution can hardly be thought to deny to one subjected to the restraints of such an ordinance the right to attack its constitutionality, because he has not yielded to its demands.’ Jones v. City of Opelika, 316 U.S. 584, 602, 62 S.Ct. 1231, 1242, 86 L.Ed. 1691 (Stone, C.J., dissenting), adopted per curiam on rehearing, 319 U.S. 103, 104, 63 S.Ct. 890, 87 L.Ed. 1290.
It is argued, however, that what was involved here was not ‘pure speech,’ but the use of public streets and sidewalks, over which a municipality must rightfully exercise a great deal of control in the interest of traffic regulation and public safety. That, of course, is true. We have emphasized before this that ‘the First and Fourteenth Amendments (do not) afford the same kind of freedom to those who would communicate ideas by conduct such as patrolling, marching, and picketing on streets and highways, as these amendments afford to those who communicate ideas by pure speech.’ Cox v. Louisiana, 379 U.S. 536, 555, 85 S.Ct. 453, 464, 13 L.Ed.2d 471. ‘Governmental authorities have the duty and responsibility to keep their streets open and available for movement.’ Id., at 554—555, 85 S.Ct., at 464.
But our decisions have also made clear that picketing and parading may nonetheless constitute methods of expression, entitled to First Amendment protection. Cox v. Louisiana, supra; Edwards v. South Carolina, 372 U.S. 229, 83 S.Ct. 680, 9 L.Ed.2d 697; Thornhill v. Alabama, 310 U.S. 88, 60 S.Ct. 736, 84 L.Ed. 1093. ‘Whenever the title of streets and parks may rest, they have immemorially been held in trust for the use of the public and, time out of mind, have been used for purposes of assembly, communicating thoughts between citizens, and discussing public questions. Such use of the streets and public places has, from ancient times, been a part of the privileges, immunities, rights, and liberties of citizens. The privilege of a citizen of the United States to use the streets and parks for communication of views on national questions may be regulated in the interest of all; it is not absolute, but relative, and must be exercised in subordination to the general comfort and convenience, and in consonance with peace and good order; but it must not, in the guise of regulation, be abridged or denied.’ Hague v. C.I.O., 307 U.S. 496, 515—516, 59 S.Ct. 954, 964, 83 L.Ed. 1423 (opinion of Mr. Justice Roberts, joined by Mr. Justice Black).
Accordingly, ‘although (a) this Court has recognized that a statute may be enacted which prevents serious interference with normal usage of streets and parks, * * * we have consistently condemned licensing systems which vest in an administrative official discretion to grant or withhold a permit upon broad criteria unrelated to proper regulation of public places.’ Kunz v. New York, 340 U.S. 290, 293—294, 71 S.Ct. 312, 315, 95 L.Ed. 280. See also Saia v. New York, 334 U.S. 558, 68 S.Ct. 1148, 92 L.Ed. 1574; Niemotko v. Maryland, 340 U.S. 268, 71 S.Ct. 325, 328, 95 L.Ed. 267, 280. Even when the use of its public streets and sidewalks is involved, therefore, a municipality may not empower its licensing officials to roam essentially at will, dispensing or withholding permission to speak, assemble, picket, or parade according to their own opinions regarding the potential effect of the activity in question on the ‘welfare,’ ‘decency,’ or ‘morals’ of the community.
Understandably, under these settled principles, the Alabama Court of Appeals was unable to reach any conclusion other than that § 1159 was unconstitutional. The terms of the Birmingham ordinance clearly gave the City Commission extensive authority to issue or refuse to issue parade permits on the basis of broad criteria entirely unrelated to legitimate municipal regulation of the public streets and sidewalks.
‘We also hold that under § 1159 the Commission is without authority to act in an arbitrary manner or with unfettered discretion in regard to the issuance of permits. Its discretion must be exercised with uniformity of method of treatment upon the facts of each application, free from improper or inappropriate considerations and from unfair discrimination. A systematic, consistent and just order of treatment with reference to the convenience of public use of the streets and sidewalks must be followed. Applications for permits to parade must be granted if, after an investigation it is found that the convenience of the public in the use of the streets or sidewalks would not thereby be unduly disturbed.’ 281 Ala., at 545—546, 206 So.2d, at 350—352.
In transforming § 1159 into an ordinance authorizing no more than the objective and even-handed regulation of traffic on Birmingham’s streets and public ways, the Supreme Court of Alabama made a commendable effort to give the legislation ‘a field of operation within constitutional limits.’ 281 Ala., at 544, 206 So.2d, at 350. We may assume that this exercise was successful, and that the ordinance as now authoritatively construed would pass constitutional muster.4 It does not follow, however, that the severely narrowing construction put upon the ordinance by the Alabama Supreme Court in November of 1967 necessarily serves to restore constitutional validity to a conviction that occurred in 1963 under the ordinance as it was written. The inquiry in every case must be that stated by Chief Justice Hughes in Cox v. New Hampshire, 312 U.S. 569, 61 S.Ct. 762, 85 L.Ed. 1049—whether control of the use of the streets for a parade or procession was, in fact, ‘exerted so as not to deny or unwarrantedly abridge the right of assembly and the opportunities for the communication of thought and the discussion of public questions immemorially associated with resort to public places.’ Id., at 574, 61 S.Ct., at 765.
‘There is no evidence that the statute has been administered otherwise than in the fair and nondiscriminatory manner which the state court has construed it to require.’ Id., at 577, 61 S.Ct., at 766.
In the present case we are confronted with quite a different situation. In April of 1963 the ordinance that was on the book in Birmingham contained language that affirmatively conferred upon the members of the Commission absolute power to refuse a parade permit whenever they thought ‘the public welfare, peace, safety, health, decency, good order, morals or convenience require that it be refused.’ It would have taken extraordinary clairvoyance for anyone to perceive that this language meant what the Supreme Court of Alabama was destined to find that it meant more than four years later; and, with First Amendment rights hanging in the balance, we would hesitate long before assuming that either the members of the Commission or the petitioner possessed any such clairvoyance at the time of the Good Friday march.
Uncontradicted testimony was offered in Walker to show that over a week before the Good Friday march petitioner Shuttlesworth sent a representative to apply for a parade permit. She went to the City Hall and asked ‘to see the person or persons in charge to issue permits, permits for parading, picketing, and demonstrating.’ She was directed to Commissioner Connor, who denied her request in no uncertain terms. ‘He said, ‘No, you will not get a permit in Birmingham, Alabama to picket. I will picket you over to the City Jail,’ and he repeated that twice.’ 388 U.S., at 317, n. 9, 325, 335, 339, 87 S.Ct., at 1830, 1834, 1839, 1841.
This case, therefore, is a far cry from Cox v. New Hampshire, supra, where it could be said that there was nothing to show ‘that the statute has been administered otherwise than in the * * * manner which the state court has construed it to require.’ Here, by contrast, it is evident that the ordinance was administered so as, in the words of Chief Justice Hughes, ‘to deny or unwarrantedly abridge the right of assembly and the opportunities for the communication of thought * * * immemorially associated with resort to public places.’ The judgment is reversed.
The Alabama Supreme Court’s opinion makes it clear that if petitioner Shuttlesworth had carried his efforts to obtain a parade permit to the highest state court, he could have required the city authorities to grant permission for his march, so long as his proposals were consistent with Birmingham’s interest in traffic control. Thus, the difficult question this case presents is whether the Fourteenth Amendment ever bars a State from punishing a citizen for marching without a permit which could have been procured if all available remedies had been pursued.
The Court answers that a citizen is entitled to rely on the statutory construction adopted by the state officials who are on the front line, administering the permit scheme. If these officials construe a vague statute unconstitutionally, the citizen may take them at their word, and act on the assumption that the statute is void. The Court’s holding seems to me to carry seeds of mischief that may impair the conceded ability of the authorities to regulate the use of public thoroughfares in the interests of all. The right to ignore a permit requirement should, in my view, be made to turn on something more substantial than a minor official’s view of his authority under the governing statute.
Given the absence of speedy procedures, the Reverend Shuttlesworth and his associates were faced with a serious dilemma when they received their notice from Mr. Connor. If they attempted to exhaust the administrative and judicial remedies provided by Alabama law, it was almost certain that no effective relief could be obtained by Good Friday. Since the right to engage in peaceful and orderly political demonstrations is, under appropriate conditions, a fundamental aspect of the ‘liberty’ protected by the Fourteenth Amendment, see Stromberg v. California, 283 U.S. 359, 368—370, 51 S.Ct. 532, 535—536, 75 L.Ed. 1117 (1931); Hague v. C.I.O., 307 U.S. 496, 515—516, 59 S.Ct. 954, 963—964, 83 L.Ed. 1423 (1939) (opinion of Roberts, J.); Garner v. Louisiana, 368 U.S. 157, 201—203, 82 S.Ct. 248, 271—272, 7 L.Ed.2d 207 (1961) (opinion of Harlan, J.), the petitioner was not obliged to invoke procedures which could not give him effective relief. With fundamental rights at stake, he was entitled to adopt the more probable meaning of the ordinance and act on his belief that the city’s permit regulations were unconstitutional.
It may be suggested, however, that Shuttlesworth’s dilemma was of his own making. He could have requested a permit months in advance of Good Friday, thereby allowing Al bama’s administrative and judicial machinery the necessary time to operate fully before the date set for the march. But such a suggestion ignores the principle established. in Freedman v. Maryland, 380 U.S. 51, 58 61, 85 S.Ct. 734, 738—741, 13 L.Ed.2d 649 (1965), which prohibits the States from requiring persons to invoke unduly cumbersome and time-consuming procedures before they may exercise their constitutional right of expression. Freedman holds that if the State is to protect the public from obscene movies, it must afford exhibitors a speedy administrative or judicial right of review, lest ‘the victorious exhibitor might find the most propitious opportunity for exhibition (passed).’ Id., at 61, 85 S.Ct., at 740. The Freedman principle is applicable here.4 The right to assemble peaceably to voice political protest is at least as basic as the right to exhibit a motion picture which may have some aesthetic value. Moreover, slow-moving procedures have a much more severe impact in the instant case than they had in Freedman. Though a movie exhibitor might suffer some financial loss if he were obliged to wait for a year or two while the administrative and judicial mills ground out a result, it is nevertheless quite likely that the public would ultimately see the film. In contrast, timing is of the essence in politics. It is almost impossible to predict the political future; and when an event occurs, it is often necessary to have one’s voice heard promptly, if it is to be considered at all. To require Shuttlesworth to submit his parade permit application months in advance would place a severe burden upon the exercise of his constitutionally protected rights. Cf. William v. Rhodes, 393 U.S. 23, 33, 89 S.Ct. 5, 11, 21 L.Ed.2d 24 (1968).
I do not mean to suggest that a State or city may not reasonably require that parade permit applications be submitted early enough to allow the authorities and the judiciary to determine whether the parade proposal is consistent with the important interests respecting the use of the streets which local authority may legitimately protect. But such applications must be handled on an expedited basis so that rights of political expression will not be lost in a maze of cumbersome and slow-moving procedures.
On this basis I concur in the reversal of the judgment of the Alabama Supreme Court.
See Lovell v. City of Griffin, 303 U.S. 444, 58 S.Ct. 666, 82 L.Ed. 949; Hague v. C.I.O., 307 U.S. 496, 59 S.Ct. 954, 83 L.Ed. 1423; Schneider v. State, 308 U.S. 147, 163—165, 60 S.Ct. 146, 151—152, 84 L.Ed. 155; Cantwell v. Connecticut, 310 U.S. 296, 60 S.Ct. 900, 84 L.Ed. 1213; Largent v. Texas, 318 U.S. 418, 63 S.Ct. 667, 87 L.Ed. 873; Jones v. City of Opelika, 316 U.S. 584, 600, 611, 62 S.Ct. 1231, 1240, 1245, 86 L.Ed. 1691 (Stone, C.J., dissenting) (Murphy, J., dissenting), vacated and previous dissenting opinions adopted per curiam, 319 U.S. 103, 63 S.Ct. 890, 87 L.Ed. 1290; Marsh v. Alabama, 326 U.S. 501, 66 S.Ct. 276, 90 L.Ed. 265; Tucker v. Texas, 326 U.S. 517, 66 S.Ct. 274, 90 L.Ed. 274; Saia v. New York, 334 U.S. 558, 68 S.Ct. 1148, 92 L.Ed. 1574; Kunz v. New York, 340 U.S. 290, 71 S.Ct. 312, 95 L.Ed. 280; Niemotko v. Maryland, 340 U.S. 268, 71 S.Ct. 325, 328, 95 L.Ed. 267, 280; Joseph Burstyn, Inc. v. Wilson, 343 U.S. 495, 72 S.Ct. 777, 96 L.Ed. 1098; Gelling v. Texas, 343 U.S. 960, 72 S.Ct. 1002, 96 L.Ed. 1359; Superior Films, Inc. v. Department of Education, etc., 346 U.S. 587, 74 S.Ct. 286, 98 L.Ed. 329; Staub v. City of Baxley, 355 U.S. 313, 78 S.Ct. 277, 2 L.Ed.2d 302; Cox v. Louisiana, 379 U.S. 536, 85 S.Ct. 453, 13 L.Ed.2d 471; Interstate Circuit, Inc. v. Dallas, 390 U.S. 676, 88 S.Ct. 1298, 20 L.Ed.2d 225.
Lovell v. City of Griffin, 303 U.S., at 452—453, 58 S.Ct., at 669; Schneider v. State, 308 U.S., at 159, 165, 60 S.Ct., at 152; Largent v. Texas, 318 U.S., at 419, 422, 63 S.Ct., at 668, 669; Jones v. City of Opelika, 316 U.S., at 602, 62 S.Ct., at 1241, adopted per curiam on rehearing, 319 U.S., at 104, 63 S.Ct. 890; Staub v. City of Baxley, 355 U.S., at 319, 78 S.Ct., at 280; Freedman v. Maryland, 380 U.S. 51, 56—57, 85 S.Ct. 734, 737—738, 13 L.Ed.2d 649.
The validity of this assumption would depend upon, among other things, the availability of expeditious judicial review of the Commission’s refusal of a permit. Cf. Poulos v. New Hampshire, 345 U.S. 395, 420, 73 S.Ct. 760, 773, 97 L.Ed. 1105 (Frankfurter, J., concurring in result); Freedman v. Maryland, 380 U.S. 51, 85 S.Ct. 734, 13 L.Ed.2d 649. See also the concurring opinion of Mr. Justice HARLAN, post, p. 159.
National Fire Ins. Co. v. Thompson, 281 U.S. 331, 336, 50 S.Ct. 288, 290, 74 L.Ed. 881, and cases cited therein.
‘In that case, the Court held that demonstrators who had proceeded with their protest march in face of the prohibition of an injunctive order against such a march, could not defend contempt charges by asserting the unconstitutionality of the injunction. The proper procedure, it was held, was to seek judicial review of the injunction and not to disobey it, no matter how well-founded their doubts might be as to its validity.’ Carroll v. President and Commissioners of Princess Anne, 393 U.S. 175, 179, 89 S.Ct. 347, 350, 21 L.Ed.2d 325.
In Walker the petitioner made an offer of proof that parade permits had been issued to other groups by the city clerk at the request of the traffic bureau of the police department. 388 U.s,., at 325—326, 336, 340, 87 S.Ct., 1834—1835, 1840, 1842.
‘Under the provisions of the city code of the City of Birmingham, a permit to picket as requested by you cannot be granted by me individually but is the responsiboity (sic) of the entire commission. I insist that you and your people do not start any picketing on the streets in Birmingham, Alabama.
See Walker v. Birmingham, No. 249, October Term, 1966, Transcript of Record 415. Mr. Connor’s telegram was received in evidence at trial. See Transcript, supra, at 350.
I do not, however, find it appropriate to rely upon the slightly earlier episode detailed in my Brother STEWART’S opinion, ante, at 157, as the trial judge ruled the uncontradicted supporting testimony inadmissible. See Transcript, supra, at 355.
Section 1159 does not require the City Commission to act on an application within any fixed amount of time. Indeed, by the time Connor definitively declared that he could not issue parade permits, it is not all clear that petitioner could even have made a timely permit application to the City Commission at its only remaining regular session set before the scheduled Good Friday march. See General City Code of Birmingham § 21 (1944). While the 1964 City Code makes it clear that petitioner’s permit application would have been considered out of time, see § 2—10, the 1944 Code, which was applicable in 1963, is not clear on this point.
Although Shuttlesworth could have petitioned for a writ of mandamus in the Alabama Circuit Court if the City Commission denied his application, that state court is not obliged to render a decision within any fixed period of time.
None of our past decisions have squarely considered whether parade licenses must be handled on an expedited basis. In Cox v. New Hampshire, 312 U.S. 569, 61 S.Ct. 762, 85 L.Ed. 1049 (1941), the question was not argued. In Poulos v. New Hampshire, 345 U.S. 395, 73 S.Ct. 760, 97 L.Ed. 1105 (1953), Poulos’ request for a permit to conduct religious services in a public park was refused by the Portsmouth City Council seven and one-half weeks before the first scheduled event. Since the time remaining was sufficient to obtain relief by way of mandamus, see 345 U.S., at 419—420, 73 S.Ct., at 773—774 (opinion of Mr. Justice Frankfurter), there was no need to consider whether the State had a constitutional obligation to provide a more rapid procedure. And, of course, those cases which struck down regulatory schemes which purported to issue licenses on the basis of unconstitutional standards did not reach the question presented here. See, e.g., Lovell v. City of Griffin, 303 U.S. 444, 58 S.Ct. 666, 82 L.Ed. 949 (1938); Schneider v. State, 308 U.S. 147, 163—165, 60 S.Ct. 146, 151—152, 84 L.Ed. 155 (1939); Largent v. Texas, 318 U.S. 418, 63 S.Ct. 667, 87 L.Ed. 873 (1943); Staub v. City of Baxley, 355 U.S. 313, 78 S.Ct. 277, 2 L.Ed.2d 302 (1958).
It would be most remarkable if every parade application involving the march of 52 persons is considered in a plenary manner by the principal government body of a city so large as Birmingham. In fact, an offer of proof was made in the Walker proceedings that the City Commission had never passed on permit applications in the past, but had delegated the task to inferior officials. See Transcript, supra, n. 1, at 290. The proof was not admitted on the ground that it was irrelevant. Ibid.
At the trial in Walker v. City of Birmingham, the City Clerk, who kept records of the parade permits that had been granted, stated that no regulations had been issued to fill in the gaps left by the Ordinance. See Transcript, supra, n. 1, at 286.
I do not reach the question whether the principle followed in such cases as Lovell, Schneider, Largent, and Staub, see n. 4, supra, allowing persons to ignore entirely licensing schemes which unconstitutionally impinge on other forms of free expression, should be extended to cover ‘parade’ permit statutes involving, as they do, a particularly important state interest.

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