Opinion ID: 779470
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Unbridled discretion and viewpoint neutrality.

Text: 25 To determine whether the unbridled discretion standard is a component of viewpoint neutrality, we turn to several Supreme Court cases for guidance, beginning with Freedman v. Maryland, 380 U.S. 51, 85 S.Ct. 734, 13 L.Ed.2d 649 (1965). In Freedman, the Supreme Court considered the constitutionality of a state law requiring movies to be approved by a Board of Censors before being shown anywhere in the state. The Board had the authority to reject films considered obscene or that tend[ed] in the judgment of the Board, to debase or corrupt morals or incite to crimes, terms that were broadly defined by the statute. Id. at 52-53, 85 S.Ct. 734. Rather than applying for a license from the Board, Ronald Freedman exhibited an unlicenced film at his theater and then challenged the constitutionality of the licensing scheme. Id. at 52-53, 85 S.Ct. 734. The Court in Freedman held that the state law constituted a prior restraint on speech and established a censorship system, and thus was constitutional only if it satisfied certain procedural safeguards. Specifically, the Court held that given the grave dangers of a censorship system, to avoid constituting an invalid prior restraint 26 (1) any restraint prior to judicial review can be imposed only for a specified brief period during which the status quo must be maintained; (2) expeditious judicial review of that decision must be available; and (3) the censor must bear the burden of going to court to suppress the speech and must bear the burden of proof once in court. 27 Thomas, 534 U.S. at 321, 122 S.Ct. at 779 (quoting FW/PBS, Inc. v. City of Dallas, 493 U.S. 215, 110 S.Ct. 596, 107 L.Ed.2d 603 (1990), and summarizing the Freedman standard). Because the Maryland licensing scheme lacked these procedural safeguards, the Supreme Court held that the motion picture censorship statute violated the First Amendment. 28 While Freedman focused on the procedural requirements for a prior restraint and censorship system, as opposed to the unbridled discretion standard, it is important to begin with Freedman because later unbridled discretion cases rely heavily on Freedman 's standing analysis. This is because the Court in Freedman began its discussion by noting that 29 [i]n the area of freedom of expression it is well established that one has standing to challenge a statute on the ground that it delegates overly broad licensing discretion to an administrative office whether or not his conduct could be proscribed by a properly drawn statute, and whether or not he applied for a license. 30 Id. at 56, 85 S.Ct. 734 (emphasis added). The Court further explained that standing in such cases was appropriate because of the danger of sweeping and improper application in the area of First Amendment freedoms. Id. This language, while very general, acknowledges the constitutional infirmity of overly broad licensing discretion, and provides for standing to facially challenge such discretion. 31 More directly discussing the question of unbridled discretion is the Supreme Court's decision in Shuttlesworth v. City of Birmingham, 394 U.S. 147, 89 S.Ct. 935, 22 L.Ed.2d 162 (1969). In Shuttlesworth, the appellant challenged the constitutionality of a city ordinance making it an offense to participate in a parade, procession or other public demonstration without first obtaining a permit from the city commissioner. Id. at 149, 89 S.Ct. 935. The ordinance granted the commissioner absolute power to deny a permit to protect public welfare, peace, safety, health, decency, good order, morals or convenience. Id. at 149, 89 S.Ct. 935. The Court began its analysis by reiterating its consistent condemnation of `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.' Id. at 153, 89 S.Ct. 935 (quoting Kunz v. New York, 340 U.S. 290, 71 S.Ct. 312, 95 L.Ed. 280 (1951) (citing Saia v. New York, 334 U.S. 558, 68 S.Ct. 1148, 92 L.Ed. 1574 (1948)); Niemotko v. Maryland, 340 U.S. 268, 71 S.Ct. 325, 95 L.Ed. 267 (1951)). The Court then concluded that the city's ordinance, as written, was unconstitutional because it conferred upon the city commission virtually unbridled and absolute power to prohibit any `parade,' `procession,' or `demonstration' on the city's streets or public ways. Id. at 150, 89 S.Ct. 935. 32 The evolution of the unbridled discretion standard continued with the Supreme Court's decision in City of Lakewood v. Plain Dealer Publishing Co., 486 U.S. 750, 108 S.Ct. 2138, 100 L.Ed.2d 771 (1988) (4-3 decision). In that case, the City of Lakewood passed an ordinance authorizing the mayor to issue applications for annual permits for the installation of newsracks on public property. Id. at 753, 108 S.Ct. 2138. While authorizing the mayor to grant or deny applications for annual newsrack permits, the ordinance did not specify any criteria to guide the mayor's decision. Id. at 753, 108 S.Ct. 2138. If the mayor denied the permit, he was only required to stat[e] the reasons for such denial. Id. But even if the mayor approved the application, in issuing the permit the city could subject the annual permit to several terms and conditions, including any terms and conditions deemed necessary and reasonable by the Mayor. Id. at 753-54, 108 S.Ct. 2138. Rather than applying for the permit, a newspaper publisher sued the city, alleging that the ordinance at issue violated the First Amendment. Id. at 754, 108 S.Ct. 2138. 33 In Lakewood, the Supreme Court first considered whether the newspaper had standing to present a facial challenge to the ordinance since it had never applied for a permit. Relying on Freedman, the Court noted that its cases have long held that when a licensing statute allegedly vests unbridled discretion in a government official over whether to permit or deny expressive activity, one who is subject to the law may challenge it facially without the necessity of first applying for, and being denied, a license. Id. at 755-56, 108 S.Ct. 2138. The Court then explained the rationale for allowing a facial challenge to a statute allegedly vesting unbridled discretion in a government official, noting two identifiable risks to free expression—the risk of self-censorship and the risk that the licensing official, not limited by express standards, will use his power to suppress speech. Id. at 757-58, 108 S.Ct. 2138. As to the risk of self-censorship, the Supreme Court explained: 34 [T]he mere existence of the licensor's unfettered discretion, coupled with the power of prior restraint, intimidates parties into censoring their own speech, even if the discretion and power are never actually abused.... Self-censorship is immune to an as applied challenge, for it derives from the individual's own actions, not an abuse of government power.... Only standards limiting the licensor's discretion will eliminate this danger by adding an element of certainty fatal to self-censorship. 35 Id. at 757-58, 108 S.Ct. 2138 (internal citation omitted). 36 The Court also expounded more fully on the second risk: 37 Second, the absence of express standards makes it difficult to distinguish, as applied, between a licensor's legitimate denial of a permit and its illegitimate abuse of censorial power. Standards provide the guideposts that check the licensor and allow courts quickly and easily to determine whether the licensor is discriminating against disfavored speech. Without these guides post hoc rationalizations by the licensing official and the use of shifting or illegitimate criteria are far too easy, making it difficult for courts to determine in any particular case whether the licensor is permitting favorable, and suppressing unfavorable, expression.... In sum, without standards to fetter the licensor's discretion, the difficulties of proof and the case-by-case nature of as applied challenges render the licensor's action in large measure effectively unreviewable. 38 Id. at 758-59, 108 S.Ct. 2138. 39 After summarizing the rationale underlying the unbridled discretion standard, the Court in Lakewood held that the ordinance violated the First Amendment by not imposing the necessary standards to limit the mayor's discretion: It is apparent that the face of the ordinance itself contains no explicit limits on the mayor's discretion. Indeed, nothing in the law as written requires the mayor to do more than make the statement `it is not in the public interest' when denying a permit application. Id. at 769, 108 S.Ct. 2138. 40 While Lakewood was a 4-3 decision, the Supreme Court applied the same standing analysis and unbridled discretion standard in Forsyth County v. Nationalist Movement, 505 U.S. 123, 112 S.Ct. 2395, 120 L.Ed.2d 101 (1992), a case involving a parade-permit ordinance. In Forsyth County, the county passed an ordinance requiring a permit for any parade, assembly or demonstration, and requiring every permit applicant to pay in advance for such permit, for the use of the County, a sum not more than $1,000.00 for each day such parade, procession, or open air public meeting shall take place. Id. at 126, 112 S.Ct. 2395 (internal citation omitted). However, the ordinance also allowed the county administrator to adjust the amount to be paid in order to meet the expense incident to the administration of the Ordinance and to the maintenance of public order in the matter licensed. Id. at 127, 112 S.Ct. 2395 (internal citation omitted). An organization called the Nationalist Movement applied for a permit to hold a rally. The county imposed a $100 fee for issuance of the permit based on 10 hours of the county administrator's time. The fee did not include any calculation for expenses incurred by law enforcement authorities... [and] [t]he county administrator testified that the cost of his time was deliberately undervalued and that he did not charge for the clerical support involved in processing the application. Id. at 127, 112 S.Ct. 2395. The Nationalist Movement nonetheless refused to pay the $100 fee, and instead sued the County alleging that the ordinance was facially invalid because it granted the County overly broad discretion for determining the amount of the permit fee. 41 The Court in Forsyth began by stating that a permit system must meet certain constitutional requirements. It may not delegate overly broad licensing discretion to a government official. Id. at 130, 112 S.Ct. 2395. The Court next addressed the issue of standing, explaining the success of a facial challenge on the grounds that an ordinance delegates overly broad discretion to the decisionmaker rests not on whether the administrator has exercised his discretion in a content-based manner, but whether there is anything in the ordinance preventing him from doing so. Id. at 133 n. 10, 112 S.Ct. 2395. Based on this well-established principle, the Court concluded that the Nationalist Movement had standing to present a facial challenge. 42 The Court next considered whether the ordinance violated the First Amendment by providing the county officials with unbridled discretion. The Court concluded that it did, explaining: 43 Based on the county's implementation and construction of the ordinance, it simply cannot be said that there are any narrowly drawn, reasonable and definite standards, guiding the hand of the Forsyth County administrator. The decision how much to charge for police protection or administrative time—or even whether to charge at all—is left to the whim of the administrator. There are no articulated standards either in the ordinance or in the county's established practice. The administrator is not required to rely on any objective factors. He need not provide any explanation for his decision, and that decision is unreviewable. Nothing in the law or its application prevents the official from encouraging some views and discouraging others through the arbitrary application of fees. The First Amendment prohibits the vesting of such unbridled discretion in a government official. 44 Id. at 132-33, 112 S.Ct. 2395. 45 Most recently, in Thomas, the Supreme Court applied the unbridled discretion standard to the Chicago Park District's permit scheme. In that case, several political activists brought a facial challenge to the constitutionality of a Chicago ordinance which required individuals to obtain a permit to hold a public assembly, parade, picnic, or other event involving more than fifty individuals on Chicago Park District property. 534 U.S. at 318, 122 S.Ct. at 777. One issue before the Court in Thomas was whether the procedural safeguards set forth in Freedman applied to the Chicago ordinance. Id. at 779. See supra at 574-75 setting forth the Freedman procedural safeguards. The Supreme Court concluded that Freedman is inapposite because the licensing scheme at issue was not subject-matter censorship but content-neutral time, place, and manner regulation of the use of a public forum. Id. The Court nonetheless noted that [w]here the licensing official enjoys unduly broad discretion in determining whether to grant or deny a permit, there is a risk that he will favor or disfavor speech based on its content. Id. at 780. Thus, as the Court explained, the ordinance must contain adequate standards to guide the official's decision and render it subject to effective judicial review. Id. The Court then reviewed the various provisions of the ordinance, and concluded that the ordinance provided reasonably specific and objective standards to limit the discretion of the Park District and to protect against the risk that the Park District would deny a permit based on the content of the speech involved. Id. at 780-81. Accordingly, the Court held that the ordinance sufficiently limited the licensing official's discretion so as to satisfy First Amendment concerns. Id. at 781. 46 From this line of cases there is much to be garnered, but we begin with the initial question of whether the unbridled discretion standard is part of the constitutional requirement of viewpoint neutrality. While the Supreme Court has never expressly held that the prohibition on unbridled discretion is an element of viewpoint neutrality, we believe that conclusion inevitably flows from the Court's unbridled discretion cases. From the earliest unbridled discretion cases to Thomas, the Supreme Court has made clear that when a decisionmaker has unbridled discretion there are two risks: First, the risk of self-censorship, where the plaintiff may edit his own viewpoint or the content of his speech to avoid governmental censorship; and second, the risk that the decisionmaker will use its unduly broad discretion to favor or disfavor speech based on its viewpoint or content, and that without standards to guide the official's decision an as-applied challenge will be ineffective to ferret out viewpoint discrimination. Both of these risks threaten viewpoint neutrality. See, e.g., Thomas, 534 U.S. at 323, 122 S.Ct. at 780 (Where the licensing official enjoys unduly broad discretion in determining whether to grant or deny a permit, there is a risk that he will favor or disfavor speech based on its content. ) (emphasis added); Lakewood, 486 U.S. at 763-64, 108 S.Ct. 2138 ([W]ithout standards governing the exercise of discretion, a government official may decide who may speak and who may not based on the ... viewpoint of the speaker.) (emphasis added). Given that the risks which the Supreme Court sought to protect against in adopting the unbridled discretion standard are risks to the constitutional mandate of viewpoint neutrality, we conclude that the prohibition against unbridled discretion is a component of the viewpoint-neutrality requirement. 47 The University presents many arguments as to why the unbridled discretion standard does not apply in this case, but as discussed below, these arguments are misplaced. First, the University contends that viewpoint neutrality is the sole constitutional protection afforded the plaintiffs based on the following language from the Supreme Court's decision in Southworth: 48 There is symmetry then in our holding here and in Rosenberger: Viewpoint neutrality is the justification for requiring the student to pay the fee in the first instance and for ensuring the integrity of the program's operation once the funds have been collected. We conclude that the University of Wisconsin may sustain the extracurricular dimensions of its programs by using mandatory student fees with viewpoint neutrality as the operational principle. 49 Southworth, 529 U.S. at 233-34, 120 S.Ct. 1346 (citing Rosenberger v. Rector & Visitors of the Univ. of Va., 515 U.S. 819, 115 S.Ct. 2510, 132 L.Ed.2d 700 (1995)). 5 50 While this language makes clear that the mandatory fee system must be viewpoint-neutral, contrary to the University's position, the Supreme Court did not hold that that was the only constitutional requirement. Nor did the Court in Southworth discuss the exact parameters of the operational principle of viewpoint neutrality or whether the constitutional mandate of viewpoint neutrality includes a prohibition on unbridled discretion, which is not surprising given that the Court was merely addressing the issue of compelled speech. In the cases where the Supreme Court has focused on the unbridled discretion standard, it has fully explained the rationale underlying that standard, making clear that the prohibition sought to protect against viewpoint discrimination. And as discussed above, we believe this rationale compels the conclusion that the requirement of viewpoint neutrality includes as a corollary a prohibition on unbridled discretion. 51 Moreover, in Southworth, in discussing the mandatory fee system as a forum, the Supreme Court expressly stated, [o]ur public forum cases are instructive here by close analogy. 529 U.S. at 229, 120 S.Ct. 1346. Similarly, in Rosenberger, 515 U.S. 819, 115 S.Ct. 2510, 132 L.Ed.2d 700, the Supreme Court stated that while a mandatory fee system is a forum more in a metaphysical than in a spatial or geographic sense ... the same principles are applicable. Id. at 830, 115 S.Ct. 2510 (emphasis added). This language compels the conclusion that the same principles which apply to governmental regulations of parks, sidewalks and streets through permit and licensing schemes also apply to the University's forum of money established by its mandatory fee system. As discussed above, in the context of public forums, the Constitution prohibits the government from providing decisionmakers. with unbridled discretion for granting access to the forum. Given, then, the Court's language in Southworth and Rosenberger, the same principle applies in this case. In fact, given this language, the unbridled discretion standard of permit and licensing cases would apply here to the mandatory fee system whether we viewed it as a component of viewpoint neutrality or as a separate constitutional mandate. 52 The foregoing language also refutes the University's argument that the constitutional standards set forth in permit and licensing cases involving access to a physical forum, such as a park or city street, do not apply to a metaphysical forum of money, such as a mandatory fee system. But even beyond the Supreme Court's reference in Southworth and Rosenberger to the same principles governing physical public forum cases, the rationale underlying licensing and permit cases supports application of the unbridled discretion standard in the case of a metaphysical forum of money. Just as speakers may self-censor their speech to obtain access to a physical forum, so too may students self-censor their activities and speech to avoid being denied access to the forum of money. Moreover, if the student government lacks specific and concrete standards to guide its funding decisions, it could use its unbridled discretion to discriminate on the basis of viewpoint. Yet that viewpoint discrimination would go unnoticed because without standards there is no way of proving that the decision was unconstitutionally motivated. Because the same concerns justifying the unbridled discretion standard in physical forum cases exist in the metaphysical sphere (and because the Supreme Court directed us to the principles set forth in physical forum cases), the unbridled discretion standard appropriately applies to the University's mandatory fee system, whether we consider it a component of viewpoint neutrality or a separate constitutional requirement. 53