Court Opinion

ID: 9493877
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 15:21:59.483789+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:56:04.888389
License: Public Domain

ILANA DIAMOND ROVNER,
Circuit Judge, concurring in part, dissenting in part.
Our recent opinion in Thomas v. Chicago Park District, 227 F.3d 921 (7th Cir.*10372000) answered some but not all of the questions raised in this appeal. That case involved essentially the same parties we have here, the Windy City Hemp Development Board and a sub-unit of the City of Chicago, namely, the Chicago Park District. In that case, Windy City Hemp challenged a Park District regulation that restricted the use of the City’s parks for gatherings, including political rallies. The Park District regulation required that a permit be obtained for any assembly in a park by a group of 50 or more persons. The regulation spelled out the criteria for the grant of a permit, the procedures for obtaining it, and the process for challenging the denial of a permit. We found that the Park District regulation did not vest unfettered discretion in the government official charged with issuing permits, and that the regulation was not impermissibly vague. We also held that requiring applicants to obtain liability insurance did not amount to a heckler’s veto because the amount of insurance required was based not on the content of the speech but rather on the size of the event and the nature of the facilities involved. We further found that the regulation’s requirement for a 30-to 60-day lead time for permit processing was reasonable in light of the attendant administrative burden and was not harmful to speech in light of exceptions the City allowed for spontaneous rallies in reaction to current events. Finally, we rejected Windy City Hemp’s main objection, that the regulation failed to adequately provide for judicial review of permit denials. We found that Illinois’ procedure for common law certiorari was an adequate means of review, and that alternate channels of review were available in federal court. We therefore concluded that the Park District regulation did not unconstitutionally impinge on Windy City Hemp’s First Amendment rights.
MacDonald now challenges the City’s requirement that he obtain a permit in order to hold a parade on the City’s streets. I agree with the majority that the amended version of the ordinance is the only one before us on review. The amended parade ordinance is considerably more vague than the Park District regulation. Rather than objective criteria regarding the number of participants and the nature of the facilities, the ordinance sets forth a number of subjective factors that the City may use to deny a permit to march on city streets. The City may deny a permit if the proposed activity will “substantially and unnecessarily” interfere with traffic, if there are insufficient numbers of police officers available to protect participants and non-participants from traffic-related hazards, and if the concentration of persons or things on the route will prevent proper fire and police protection or ambulance service. Under this scheme, it is not difficult to see how the City might decide that a parade honoring the Chicago Bulls that snarls traffic for miles does not “substantially or unnecessarily” interfere with traffic, but that MacDonald’s small band of marijuana protesters will overwhelm City resources and interfere with traffic to an unacceptable level.1 Nonetheless, the ordinance is not so subjective on its face that it allows an exercise of “unfettered disere*1038tion,” especially in light of the fact that judicial review is readily available. I therefore concur with the majority’s conclusion on that issue.
I part company with the majority, however, on the issue of whether the ordinance impermissibly allows a heckler’s veto. See Forsyth County, Georgia v. Nationalist Movement, 505 U.S. 123, 112 S.Ct. 2395, 120 L.Ed.2d 101 (1992). The ordinance challenged in Forsyth County provided that every parade permit applicant “shall 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.” 505 U.S. at 126, 112 S.Ct. 2395. Moreover, the county administrator was empowered 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.” 505 U.S. at 127, 112 S.Ct. 2395. A group of white supremacists sought to march in opposition to the federal holiday celebrating the birth of Martin Luther King. The county set a fee of $100 for the permit. Rather than pay the fee, the would-be marchers sued the county. The Supreme Court noted that sometimes the county included all of the administrative and police expenses in the fee, and sometimes included only a portion of those costs in the fee. As construed by the county, the Court noted, the ordinance often required that the fee be based on the content of the speech. 505 U.S. at 133-34, 112 S.Ct. 2395. The ordinance did not explicitly state that fees were based on content, of course. Rather, the ordinance allowed the county administrator to assess a fee to cover the cost of protecting persons participating in or observing the parade. In order to assess accurately the cost of security for parade participants, the administrator necessarily “examine[d] the content of the message that is conveyed.” 505 U.S. at 134, 112 S.Ct. 2395 (quoting Arkansas Writers’ Project, Inc. v. Ragland, 481 U.S. 221, 230, 107 S.Ct. 1722, 95 L.Ed.2d 209 (1987)). The administrator would also have to estimate the response of others to the content and judge the number of police necessary to meet that response. Thus, the “fee assessed will depend on the administrator’s measure of the amount of hostility likely to be created by the speech based on its content.” Forsyth County, 505 U.S. at 134, 112 S.Ct. 2395.
The County argued that, although the cost of policing relates to content, the ordinance itself was content neutral because it was aimed at a secondary effect, the cost of maintaining public order. The Forsyth Court noted that, nevertheless, “it cannot be said that the fee’s justification ‘ha[s] nothing to do with content.’ ” 505 U.S. at 134, 112 S.Ct. 2395 (citing Ward v. Rock Against Racism, 491 U.S. 781, 792, 109 S.Ct. 2746, 105 L.Ed.2d 661 (1989)). The Court explained,
The costs to which petitioner refers are those associated with the public’s reaction to the speech. Listeners’ reaction to speech is not a content-neutral basis for regulation.... Speech cannot be financially burdened, any more than it can be punished or banned, simply because it might offend a hostile mob.
Forsyth County, 505 U.S. at 134-35, 112 S.Ct. 2395 (citations omitted). The Court concluded that regulations which permit the government to discriminate on the basis of the content of the message cannot be tolerated under the First Amendment. The Court also held that although raising revenue for police services was undoubtedly an important government goal, it did not justify a content-based permit fee.
Acknowledging that Forsyth County is good law, the majority seeks to distinguish it. Supra at 1032-34. The majority notes that, unlike the Chicago parade ordinance, the Forsyth County ordinance involved an assessment of fees to help cover the cost of police protection. The Chicago ordinance directs the Commissioner to consider the availability of police to protect participants from traffic hazards only, and according to the majority, the words “traffic hazards” are determinative here — because the Com*1039missioner assesses the need for officers only in terms of traffic hazards, the content of the marchers’ speech purportedly is not implicated. Supra at 1032. In For-syth County, by contrast, the county commissioner calculated the cost of providing police protection for demonstrators based on all dangers but most significantly considered the potential for violent response to the speech. The fee was thus tied to the content of the speech. The majority sees the Chicago ordinance as different in three respects. First, the Chicago ordinance does not involve fees at all. Second, the only hazard the City must consider in denying or granting a permit is whether there are sufficient police officers available to protect participants (and non-participants) from traffic perils. Third, because the Commissioner does not necessarily even know the content of the speech when making that determination, the ordinance lacks content-based discrimination, according to the majority.
That Forsyth County involved a fee-based permit is certainly not determinative. In fact, the Chicago ordinance is more restrictive than Forsyth County’s law in the sense that the ban on speech is outright; there is no amount a marcher can pay to be allowed to march if the City decides the burdens are too great. For-syth County itself acknowledged that “[sjpeech cannot be financially burdened, any more than it can be punished or banned, simply because it might offend a hostile mob.” 505 U.S. at 134-35, 112 S.Ct. 2395. Thus, a fee is no different from a ban, and in fact might be less intrusive; but under Forsyth County both a fee and a ban based on content cannot stand.
I believe it is disingenuous for the City to claim it does not know the content of the speech before a particular event, and therefore does not consider the content in determining whether the permit shall issue, or in determining whether the crowd size (including hecklers) will be prohibitive. First, the permit application requires the name of both the person signing the application, and the name of the “authorized and responsible leaders of the organization conducting the parade.” Chicago Ordinance § 10-8-330(e)(l)-(2). More often than not, the name of the organization alone will tip the City off to the content of the proposed speech, as was certainly true in this case. The City could not seriously contend that it did not know what message would be conveyed by the Windy City Hemp Development Board. Indeed, most of the organizations whose speech is controversial and who are most at risk for censorship are readily recognizable from their names. See Collin v. Smith, 578 F.2d 1197 (7th Cir.1978), cert. denied, 439 U.S. 916, 99 S.Ct. 291, 58 L.Ed.2d 264 (1978) (suit allowing the National Socialist Party of America, a Nazi organization, to march through Skokie, Illinois); Hurley v. Irish-American Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Group of Boston, 515 U.S. 557, 115 S.Ct. 2338, 132 L.Ed.2d 487 (1995) (suit prohibiting gay and lesbian organization from participating in Boston’s St. Patrick’s Day parade).
Second, the City requires the applicant to estimate the approximate number of persons to participate in the parade, and to inform the City of the basis on which this estimate is made. Chicago Ordinance § 10-8-330(e)(5). If the Commissioner denies a permit for failure to provide sufficient information about the crowd estimate, the Commissioner will inform the applicant of what additional information must be provided in a new or amended application. Chicago Ordinance § 10-8-330(£). These last two factors combine to require the applicant to provide the City with the information necessary for the City to estimate the response (including the hostile response) to the parade. Because the applicant is required to provide the basis for the crowd estimate, the content of the speech and its potentially controversial nature are necessarily implicated. In effect, the applicant is required to inform the City of the content of the speech if the content (and the controversial nature) of the speech affects the crowd estimate. Having required the applicant *1040to provide this information, the City may not then deny that it is using that information in deciding whether to issue a permit.
Nor do I see how the words “traffic hazards” save the ordinance from the dictates of Forsyth County. Counter-protestors are just as likely to threaten to spill out into the streets as they are to assault marchers. When the City is assessing whether it has adequate numbers of peace officers to protect both participants and non-participants from traffic hazards, it is necessarily considering both the number of counter-demonstrators and the possibility of unruliness and violence. The Supreme Court rejected Forsyth County’s characterization of its ordinance as content-neutral on the grounds that it was aimed at a secondary effect — the cost of maintaining public order. 505 U.S at 134, 112 S.Ct. 2395. In the Court’s view, because the secondary effect with which the County purported to be concerned was entwined with the message that the permit-seekers sought to convey, “it cannot be said that the fee’s justification ‘ha[s] nothing to do with content.’ ” 505 U.S at 134, 112 S.Ct. 2395 (quoting Ward, 491 U.S. at 792, 109 S.Ct. 2746). Likewise, in Chicago, it cannot be said that assessing the number of officers needed to protect participants and non-participants from traffic hazards has nothing to do with content of the proposed parade. In some part, that assessment will be based on the size of any counter-demonstration that might ensue, on the level of hostility that the parade might generate. Traffic is difficult in a city like Chicago on the best of days, and it can be disrupted by even minor mishaps. It is therefore easy to imagine that the City might deem even a small parade too great a threat to the orderly flow of traffic if the content of the parade strikes the City regulators as controversial. In effect, under the Chicago ordinance, counter-protestors can apply their heckler’s veto by threatening to show up in large numbers and create traffic hazards of their own.
Although the ordinance provides that the City must issue “to the extent practicable” a permit to hold the parade on an alternate date or on an alternate route with comparable visibility, in the very least hecklers are given the power to delay or move the event. Timing and location can be integral to the message, and I believe Forsyth County does not allow the City to convey this power to hecklers. Chicago is a city of neighborhoods, each with its own distinct character. A march through the Back of the Yards neighborhood would be no substitute for a march through nearby Bridgeport when the purpose of the march is to protest a racially motivated attack on an African-American youth who happened into the mostly white neighborhood. See Cindy Schreuder & Heather Lalley, Hopes Rise for Teen a Week After Beating Victim Stirs from His Coma as 150 March in Bridgeport, Chi. Trib., March 29, 1997, at 1. A directive to provide “comparable public visibility” on a “similar route” can strip the message of most of its meaning.
Moreover, I do not believe that the Park District case supports the majority’s contention that the Chicago parade ordinance does not offend Forsyth County. It is true that the cost of the liability insurance in Thomas was related to the size of the event and the nature of the facilities utilized, and not to the content of the speech or the potential for violent response to the speech. The majority contends that determining whether there are sufficient peace officers to handle traffic-related hazards similarly requires only a consideration of the size of the parade, its route and time. Those considerations may certainly come into play, but the ordinance does not limit the City to such objective factors. It allows the City to subjectively determine whether the burden on municipal resources is too great to allow the parade to go forward, without reference to any standards. Under Forsyth County, any law requiring a license before protected speech may take place must contain narrow, objective, and definite standards to guide the licensing authority. 505 U.S. at 131, 112 S.Ct. 2395 (citing Shuttlesworth v. Birmingham, 394 U.S. 147, 150-51, 89 S.Ct. 935, 22 L.Ed.2d 162 (1969)). The reason for this, according to the Supreme Court, *1041is that when a permit scheme allows the appraisal of facts, the exercise of judgment and the formation of an opinion by an uncabined licensing authority, the danger of censorship is too great. See Forsyth County, 505 U.S. at 131, 112 S.Ct. 2395 (citing Cantwell v. State of Connecticut, 310 U.S. 296, 303, 60 S.Ct. 900, 84 L.Ed. 1213 (1940) and Southeastern Promotions, Ltd. v. Conrad, 420 U.S. 546, 553, 95 S.Ct. 1239, 43 L.Ed.2d 448 (1975)). The Chicago parade ordinance allows not only the appraisal of facts and exercise of judgment warned against in Forsyth County and other cases, but also grants City officials free reign to consider the effect of counter-demonstrations on its ability to protect against traffic hazards. Therefore, unlike the park ordinance, the parade ordinance allows the City to deny permits based on a heckler’s veto. The Supreme Court has not repudiated Forsyth County and I do not believe this Court should do so on its own. Therefore, I respectfully dissent.
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. Lest we think this discussion is purely academic, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani of New York recently reminded us that cities do attempt to censor controversial messages. See Giuliani Forms 'Decency’ Panel to Review Public Art, L.A. Times, Feb. 17, 2001, at A24. Offended by a photograph displayed at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Mayor announced that he was forming a task force to monitor decency in tax-sponsored art exhibits. The photograph depicted a nude African-American woman as a Christ-like figure at the Last Supper. Giuliani had previously cut off funds from that same museum when he was offended by an earlier display. A federal court declared the funding freeze unconstitutional, and the City restored the funds. Similarly, Chicago is not immune to the phenomenon of government censorship. See Alf Siewers & Ray Hanania, Controversial Painting Leads to Brush with Law, Cm. Sun-Times, May 12, 1988, at 1. Three City alderman removed a controversial painting from the wall of a museum associated with the School of the Art Institute, and the police then impounded the painting. The painting depicted the late Mayor Harold Washington in a manner that many found offensive.