Opinion ID: 382337
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Restrictions as to Time and Place

Text: 11 Subparagraphs 1, 2, and 5 of the ordinance restrict the time and place of the use of sound amplification equipment. Subparagraph 1 prohibits all sound amplification in the downtown business district except for certain hours on Sunday. Subparagraph 2 prohibits all sound amplification throughout the city between 7:00 p. m. and 10:00 a. m. daily and between 10:00 a. m. and 1:00 p. m. on Sunday. Subparagraph 5 prohibits all sound amplification within 100 yards of a hospital, school, church, or courthouse, or within 50 yards of any residence including a hotel or motel. In order to appreciate the degree of restriction these subsections cumulatively impose, it is useful to note that they leave only the following outside areas and times open to the use of any form of sound amplification equipment, no matter how low its volume or orderly its presentation: 12 1) the downtown business district between 1:00 and 7:00 p. m. on Sunday afternoons; 13 2) parks, industrial areas, and purely commercial areas 6 between 10:00 a. m. and 7:00 p. m. Monday through Saturday and 1:00 and 7:00 p. m. Sunday; 14 3) those residential areas where houses are set back from the road at least 50 yards, and then only between the same hours specified in 2), above. 15 Even these listed areas would be foreclosed if the amplifying equipment were within 50 yards of a residence or hotel, or within 100 yards of a hospital, church, school, or courthouse. 16 The city asserts two justifications for the restrictions contained in subparagraph 1 in regard to the downtown business district: 1) to prevent disruption of the normal business activity on the crowded streets in this district and 2) to prevent distractions of pedestrians and drivers whose full attention is needed elsewhere. The ends which the city seeks to protect are clearly proper, but the blanket prohibition by which it seeks to achieve those ends is far too broad. Not every amplified sound at every time except Sunday afternoon will disrupt the normal business activity of the downtown district or make the streets unsafe. Precisely because the downtown district is already a busy and noisy place, reasonably amplified free speech is guaranteed a broad right to equal participation in these aspects of modern urban life. As the Court stated in Grayned, the nature of a place, 'the pattern of its normal activities, dictate the kinds of regulations of time, place, and manner that are reasonable.' ... The crucial question is whether the manner of expression is basically incompatible with the normal activity of a particular place at a particular time. Grayned, 408 U.S. at 116, 92 S.Ct. at 2303. By this standard, there is probably no more appropriate place for reasonably amplified free speech than the streets and sidewalks of a downtown business district. (S)treets, sidewalks, parks, and other similar public places are so historically associated with the exercise of First Amendment rights that access to them for the purpose of exercising such rights cannot constitutionally be denied broadly and absolutely. Hudgens v. NLRB, 424 U.S. 507, 515, 96 S.Ct. 1029, 1034, 47 L.Ed.2d 196 (1976) (quoting Amalgamated Food Employees Union v. Logan Valley Plaza, 391 U.S. 308, 315, 88 S.Ct. 1601, 1606, 20 L.Ed.2d 603 (1968)). The city may tailor its ordinance to reach those activities that actually cause, or immediately threaten to cause, the consequences it fears. Grayned, 408 U.S. at 117-21, 92 S.Ct. at 2303-2306. It clearly has not done so in this subparagraph. Accordingly, subparagraph 1 is unconstitutional as an overly broad restriction of protected First Amendment rights. 17 The city attempts to justify the subparagraph 2 restriction on hours of operation as a reasonable means of preserving the tranquility of Sunday morning for religious services and of the evening, night, and early morning hours for rest, quiet reflection, and family togetherness. It is true that when a citizen is within the privacy of his home, the state has broad powers to safeguard his very basic right to be free from sights, sounds, and tangible matter he does not want. Rowan v. United States Post Office, 397 U.S. 728, 736, 90 S.Ct. 1484, 1490, 25 L.Ed.2d 736 (1970). That legitimate interest of the state is greatly diminished, however, when the citizen is outside his home. In the public spaces of a city one is often required to divert his attention or his path rather than ask the state to silence objectionable speech or reasonably amplified speech. Erznoznick v. City of Jacksonville, 422 U.S. 205, 95 S.Ct. 2268, 45 L.Ed.2d 125 (1975); Cohen v. California, 403 U.S. 15, 21, 91 S.Ct. 1780, 1786, 29 L.Ed.2d 284 (1971). The interest of a citizen in his privacy and tranquility, which the City of Houston seeks to protect in subparagraph 2, is therefore tied to certain locations and spaces. We repeat that the crucial question is whether the manner of expression is basically incompatible with the normal activity of a particular place at a particular time. Grayned, 408 U.S. at 116, 92 S.Ct. at 2303. The city thus must make some effort to tailor its ordinance in relation to place as well as time. All sound amplification might well be incompatible with the normal activity of a purely residential area at 9:00 p. m. or on Sunday morning, but it is quite compatible with the normal activity of a night club district at 9:00 p. m. or a public park on Sunday morning. An absolute and city-wide prohibition of all sound amplification except during nine hours of the day cannot be viewed as narrowly tailored to further the State's legitimate interest. Id. at 116-17, 92 S.Ct. at 2303. Accordingly, subsection 2 is also void as an unconstitutionally overbroad regulation of activities protected by the First Amendment. 18 Subparagraph 5 seeks to protect specific locations where the city has a legitimate interest in preserving privacy and efficient operation: residences, 7 schools, 8 courthouses, 9 hospitals, and churches. But here, in contrast to subparagraph 2, the city protects the location without regard to the time or normal activity of the area. For instance, there can be no valid state interest in prohibiting all sound amplification within 100 yards of schools, courthouses, and churches outside the normal hours of use, as does the City of Houston. And if a residence or hotel is located in an area characterized by noise and activity at a certain hour, amplified free speech may participate in that noise and cannot be absolutely prohibited within a fifty yard protective zone. There is no valid state interest in prohibiting amplified sound that does not actually cause, or imminently threaten to cause, material disruption at these locations. 10 See, e. g., Grayned, 408 U.S. at 115-21, 92 S.Ct. at 2302-06; Cox v. Louisiana, 379 U.S. 559, 562-64, 85 S.Ct. 476, 479-80, 13 L.Ed.2d 487 (1965). The Supreme Court has consistently found that an undifferentiated fear or apprehension of disturbance is not enough to overcome the right to freedom of expression. Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, 393 U.S. 503, 508, 89 S.Ct. 733, 737, 21 L.Ed.2d 731 (1969). Because subparagraph 5 sweeps so much more broadly than is necessary to protect the city's legitimate interests, it is also void for unconstitutional overbreadth.