Opinion ID: 76557
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Ordinance is Content Neutral

Text: 67 The principal inquiry in determining content neutrality ... is whether the government has adopted a regulation of speech because of disagreement with the message it conveys. Ward v. Rock Against Racism, 491 U.S. 781, 791, 109 S.Ct. 2746, 105 L.Ed.2d 661 (1989). There are two forms of content-based discrimination: 1) viewpoint discrimination; and 2) subject-matter discrimination. See Rosenberger v. Rector and Visitors of Univ. of Va., 515 U.S. 819, 115 S.Ct. 2510, 2516, 132 L.Ed.2d 700 (1995) (The government must abstain from regulating speech when the specific motivating ideology or the opinion or perspective of the speaker is the rationale for the restriction); Police Dep't of City of Chicago v. Mosley, 408 U.S. 92, 92 S.Ct. 2286, 33 L.Ed.2d 212 (1972) (unconstitutional restriction allowed picketing on subject of labor-management dispute, but picketing on other subjects was not permitted). 68 Plaintiffs assert that the ordinance restricts speech based on its content because it applies only to demonstrations and protests. Plaintiffs, however, do not assert that the protest ordinance discriminates based upon the viewpoint of the speaker or the subject matter of the speech. Instead, Plaintiffs contend that the restriction on certain forms of speech constitutes content discrimination because the Sheriff has to consider the message of the speaker to determine whether the ordinance even applies to the speech. 69 For two reasons, the Plaintiffs' reasoning is unpersuasive. First, the ordinance does not discriminate against a particular viewpoint or limit speech to certain subject matters. Instead, it prohibits all protests and demonstrations without prior approval. See Hill v. Colorado, 530 U.S. 703, 120 S.Ct. 2480, 2492 n. 30, 147 L.Ed.2d 597 (2000) (citing several decisions where Court upheld a general ban on picketing and demonstrations); see also Horton v. City of St. Augustine, Fla., 272 F.3d 1318 (11th Cir.2000) (complete ban on street performances did not discriminate based on viewpoint or opinion of street performer). 70 In addition, the protest ordinance merely requires the Sheriff to perform a cursory evaluation of the message a protester seeks to convey. In Hill v. Colorado, the Supreme Court considered the constitutionality of a Colorado statute making it unlawful to approach another person without that person's consent for the purpose of ... engaging in oral protest, education, or counseling with such other person. Id. at 2481. In that case petitioners argued that the Colorado statute was content based because the content of the speech had to be examined to determine whether it constituted oral protest, counseling, or education. Id. at 2485. Unpersuaded by petitioners' argument, the Court upheld the statute ruling that a brief evaluation of speech is not constitutionally problematic. Hill v. Colorado, 120 S.Ct. at 2492 (We have never held, or suggested, that it is improper to look at the content of an oral or written statement in order to determine whether a rule of law applies to a course of conduct.). Accordingly, the Sheriff's duty to make a cursory examination of the protesters' message does not render the ordinance content based.