Opinion ID: 76557
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Ordinance is a Prior Restraint

Text: 64 The ordinance states that the Commission only sought to regulate the time, place, and manner of protests and demonstrations. Typical time, place, and manner regulations restrict speech based on specific times of the day, proposed locations, or the methods and equipment used to disseminate a message. See Nationalist Movement v. City of Cumming, Ga., 92 F.3d 1135, 1137 (11th Cir.1996) (ordinance banned parades on Saturday mornings); Horton v. City of St. Augustine, Fla., 272 F.3d 1318, 1321 (11th Cir.2001) (ordinance prohibited street performances from occurring in four-block area on particular street); Wise Enters., Inc. v. Unified Gov't of Athens-Clarke County, Ga., 217 F.3d 1360, 1365 (11th Cir.2000) (ordinance prohibited sale of alcohol at nude-dancing establishment). Unlike the typical time, place, and manner restriction, the protest ordinance does not restrict speech to certain times of the day, specific locations, or dictate the methods or equipment that may be used to disseminate a message. Instead, the ordinance suggests that the Sheriff may consider those factors, among others, when deciding whether to grant or deny a permit. 65 Merely considering the proposed time, place, and manner of a protest or demonstration, does not convert this ordinance into a valid time, place, and manner restriction. Instead, the ordinance undoubtedly constitutes a prior restraint on expression because the Sheriff must approve the fact of, if not the message of, the protest or demonstration before it occurs. See United States v. Frandsen, 212 F.3d 1231, 1236-37 (11th Cir.2000) (A prior restraint on expression exists when the government can deny access to a forum before the expression occurs.) As such, there is a strong presumption against its constitutionality. Id. at 1237; see also FW/PBS, Inc. v. City of Dallas, 493 U.S. 215, 225, 110 S.Ct. 596, 107 L.Ed.2d 603 (1990) (O'Connor, J.) (plurality opinion). 66 Although a prior restraint is presumptively invalid, that presumption can be overcome if the ordinance contains certain safeguards. The type of safeguards necessary to validate the prior restraint depends upon whether the ordinance limits speech based on its content. See Thomas v. Chicago Park Dist., 534 U.S. 316, 122 S.Ct. 775, 151 L.Ed.2d 783 (2002) (content-neutral prior restraints do not have to contain the procedural safeguards set forth in Freedman v. Maryland, 380 U.S. 51, 85 S.Ct. 734, 13 L.Ed.2d 649 (1965)). Accordingly, it is necessary to determine whether the prior restraint imposed by the ordinance is content based or content neutral.