Court Opinion

ID: 9468616
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 02:19:06.12034+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:40:57.345869
License: Public Domain

GEE, Circuit Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part:
With two minor exceptions only, I concur in the excellent opinion of the court. I am unable to agree with its invalidation of Section 2 of the parade ordinance (pp. 512-513) or of Section 2A of the sound-truck one (pp. 515-516).
The former provision prohibits parades, processions and such from beginning after 6:00 p. m. and is struck down because maintaining nighttime security is its basis, and nightfall occurs in Tupelo somewhat later than that time during some of the year. At other seasons, of course, it occurs at about the time specified or even earlier. The time selected as a cut-off seems to me a reasonable approximation, within the range of legislative discretion. Nor does this limitation seem to me all that different from the one approved in Abernathy v. Conroy, 429 F.2d 1170 (4th Cir. 1970), referred to with apparent approval by the majority. There the ordinance upheld required that parades and the like conclude by 8:00 p. m. Since most parades last for an hour or two, commencing before 6:00 p. m. and concluding before 8:00 p. m. seem to me to come to about the same thing.
For similar reasons, denying permits for sound trucks in residential areas and defining these areas as those zoned for residential purposes seem to me reasonable legislative approximations to effect an admittedly legitimate purpose. Absent a suggestion of some fraudulent or invidious motive — the majority takes each provision on its face and suggests nothing of the kind — these provisions, while perhaps not perfect, seem to me appropriate and valid efforts at reasonable regulation and the action of the majority striking them down over-exacting.