Opinion ID: 1494037
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 12

Heading: The Ordinance Has Been Administered In An Unconstitutional Manner.

Text: But even if we were to assume that the ordinance of Jersey City under consideration is valid and constitutional, none the less we find that it has been administered in a discriminatory and therefore unconstitutional manner. The learned trial judge in three of his findings of fact treats the past performances of the speakers designated by the appellees, whether they have spoken with decency and without causing disorder, as constituting the test, or at least the most important single factor of the test, as to whether they will cause disorder if permitted to speak. He then found as a fact that none of the speakers designated by the appellees had ever spoken at any public meetings in the open air at the places designated in the applications for permits and that none of the designated speakers in past performances had ever given reasonable grounds for belief that breaches of the peace would result from their utterances. The test so applied by the trial judge seems to us to be a proper one if it be conceded that previous restraint may be imposed. We can conceive of no other unless the speeches sought to be given are subjected to prior censorship by the authorities, a course completely incompatible with the right of free speech and assembly. The findings of fact referred to are fully supported by the evidence. We can find no competent evidence from the record before us that violence or disorder would have resulted either from the meetings which the appellees desired to hold or from the words which the speakers were likely to deliver at such meetings. Nor was there any reasonable apprehension that the public in Jersey City would have rioted. The record, however, presents an extraordinary fact. The Mayor of Jersey City and the other appellants endeavored to build up a dangerous situation, one in which sympathizers of the appellees could not safely speak. That such efforts did not result in actual danger seems to us to have resulted rather from the good sense of the citizens than from the good will of Mayor Hague and his associates. As we have stated, while denying permits to the appellees and their sympathizers, the appellants granted permits for meetings to other groups. Discrimination is therefore plainly shown. Such conduct upon the part of the appellants is in violation of the due process and equal protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment. The criterion imposed by the authorities of Jersey City upon the right to speak therein is simply whether or not the individual who is to speak is a right thinking person in the view of those who constitute the city authorities. No other test is applied. The authorities upon this subject are very clear. In Sunday Lake Iron Co. v. Township of Wakefield, 247 U.S. 350, 352, 38 S.Ct. 495, 62 L.Ed. 1154, Mr. Justice McReynolds, delivering the opinion of the Supreme Court, stated, The purpose of the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment [U.S. C.A.Const.] is to secure every person within the State's jurisdiction against intentional and arbitrary discrimination, whether occasioned by express terms of a statute or by its improper execution through duly constituted agents. In Concordia Fire Insurance Co. v. Illinois, 292 U.S. 535, 545, 54 S.Ct. 830, 834, 78 L.Ed. 1411, Mr. Justice Van Devanter stated, Whether a state statute is valid or invalid under the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment [U.S.C.A. Const.] often depends on how the statute is construed and applied. It may be valid when given a particular application and invalid when given another. See also Yick Wo v. Hopkins, 118 U.S. 356, 6 S.Ct. 1064, 30 L.Ed. 220, and People ex rel. Doyle v. Atwell, 232 N.Y. 96, 102, 103, 133 N.E. 364, 367, wherein Cardozo, J., stated, The mayor refused a permit, it is said, because the applicants were Socialists. If that is so he was guilty of a grave abuse of power. The appellants contend that the ordinance does not concern itself with speech at all and does not attempt to regulate what may or may not be said at public meetings; that it was designed merely to regulate the manner in which the streets and public places of the city might be used. The appellants argue this is a valid exercise of the police power and does not infringe or abridge any of the constitutional rights of the appellees. This is really the contention that the ordinance is valid and constitutional upon its face, a contention which we have dealt with in an earlier part of this opinion. It is obvious that whether the ordinance be valid upon its face or otherwise, none the less it has been used by the authorities of Jersey City for abridging the rights of free speech and free assembly. The findings of fact made by the trial judge upon this phase of the case are supported fully by the evidence and the injunctive relief sought by the appellees was properly granted to them.