People v. Duffy

179 P.2d 876, 79 Cal. App. Supp. 2d 875, 1947 Cal. App. LEXIS 909
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedApril 18, 1947
DocketCrim. A. 2231
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 179 P.2d 876 (People v. Duffy) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Duffy, 179 P.2d 876, 79 Cal. App. Supp. 2d 875, 1947 Cal. App. LEXIS 909 (Cal. Ct. App. 1947).

Opinions

BISHOP, J.

We are called upon, in this appeal, to determine upon which side of a fairly well defined line a provision of the Los Angeles Municipal Code falls which prohibits the holding of a procession or parade, on any public street, without a, permit from the Board of Police Commissioners,’ no standard being set up in the code by which the Jmard is required to measure its decision. We have dtoncluded that this case is governed by the principle that legislation is unconstitutional which attempts to make the free*, trade in ideas dependent upon that which, insofar as the legislation speaks, may be an arbitrary decision of an official or official^ body; that those cases which find no fault when such legislation restricts other activities than those involving the expression of ideas, are not applicable.

The appeal is by the People. To a count of a complaint charging that some twenty-six defendants had violated the [877]*877provisions of section 23.10 of the Los Angeles Municipal Code by participating in and carrying on a parade and procession upon certain city streets, without a permit from the Board of Police Commissioners, a demurrer was interposed, sustained, and a judgment of dismissal entered. If the provisions of the section referred to are unconstitutional, as we have concluded that they are, no result other than an affirmance of the judgment from which the appeal was taken is legally possible.

Section 23.10(a) of the Los Angeles Municipal Code provides : “No person shall hold, conduct, manage, participate in or carry on any parade, march or procession on any street in the City, or beat any drum, gong, triangle, tambourine, or blow, use or play any wind or stringed musical instrument upon any street in the City, unless such person has first made written application for and received from the Board [of Police Commissioners] a permit in writing authorizing such person so to do. All applications for such permits shall set forth:

“ (1) The route along which any such parade, march or procession proposes to travel;

“ (2) The time of the proposed starting of same ;

“ (3) The names of the persons in control of the same or responsible therefor;

“ (4) The purpose of such parade or procession. ’ ’

We find, as we consider the principles involved in this case, that there is a very clean cut distinction made, at some points, between that which may be constitutionally legislated affecting traffic in ideas and that which may be adopted respecting traffic in things. We find an example of it in this statement of a unanimous court in Valentine v. Chrestensen (1942), 316 U.S. 52, 54 [62 S.Ct. 920, 86 L.Ed. 1262, 1265] : “1. This court has unequivocally held that the streets are proper places for the exercise of the freedom of communicating information and disseminating opinion and that, though the states and municipalities may appropriately regulate the privilege in the public interest, they may not unduly burden or proscribe its employment in these public thoroughfares. We are equally clear that the Constitution imposes no such restraint on government as respects purely commercial advertising.” A like distinction was recognized in Pittsford v. City of Los Angeles (1942), 50 Cal.App.2d 25 [122 P.2d 535].

Dealing now with cases involving legislation of the character before us, that is, legislation which makes a course of [878]*878action unlawful if pursued without a permit, and which leaves the withholding or granting of a permit to an official or official body without any sufficient guide by which the decision to withhold or grant is to be made, we find several unequivocal declarations. In Lovell v. Griffin (1938), 303 U.S. 444 [58 S.Ct. 666, 82 L.Ed. 949], there was under review a city ordinance which attempted to outlaw the distribution of circulars, advertising, or literature of any kind, without the written permission of the city manager being first obtained. The ordinance, declared the Supreme Court with one voice, was “invalid on its face. Whatever the motive which induced its adoption, its character is such that it strikes at the very foundation of the freedom of the press by subjecting it to license and censorship. The struggle for the freedom of the press was primarily directed against the power of the licensor. It was against that power that John Milton directed his assault by his ‘Appeal for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing.’ And the liberty of the press became initially a right to publish ‘without a license what formerly could be published only with one. ’ While this freedom from previous restraint upon publication cannot be regarded as exhausting the guaranty of liberty, the prevention of that restraint was a leading purpose in the adoption of the constitutional provision. [Citing cases.] Legislation of the type of the ordinance in question would restore the system of license and censorship in its baldest, form.” We note, in passing, that the court did not even discuss the possibility that the ordinance could be saved by the presumption that the city manager, the “censor,” would act reasonably and not arbitrarily.

In Hague v. Committee for Industrial Organization (1939), 307 U.S. 496 [59 S.Ct. 954, 83 L.Ed. 1423], among other things, an ordinance was involved which, by its terms, provided that no public parade or public assembly should take place in the public streets or public parks, without a permit from the Director of Public Safety. If a permit was requested, the director was left with far less latitude than is the Board of Police Commissioners under the provisions of the Municipal Code before us, for the ordinance declared that a request for a permit should only be refused “for the purpose of preventing riots, disturbances or disorderly assemblage.” We think the court’s view sufficiently appears from these words of Mr. Justice Roberts (307 U.S. 515, 516, 83 L.Ed. 1436, 1437) : “Wherever the title of streets and parks may rest, they have [879]*879immemorially been held in trust for the use of the public and, time out of mind, have been used for purposes of assembly, communicating thoughts between citizens, and discussing public questions. Such use of the streets and public places has, from ancient times, been a part of the privileges, immunities, rights, and liberties of citizens. . . . We think the court below was right in holding the ordinance quoted in Note 1 void upon its face. It does not make comfort or convenience in the use of streets or parks the standard of official action. It enables the Director of Safety to refuse a permit on his mere opinion that such refusal will prevent ‘riots, disturbances or disorderly assemblage. ’ It can thus, as the record discloses, be made the instrument of arbitrary suppression of free expression of views on national affairs for the prohibition of all speaking will undoubtedly ‘prevent’ such eventualities. But uncontrolled official suppression of the privilege cannot be made a substitute for the duty to maintain order in connection with the exercise of the right. ’ ’ The thought thus expressed is quite inconsistent with the idea that the ordinance could be found constitutional because the Director of Safety should be counted upon not to abuse the power vested in him.

Again, in Schneider v.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Kopp v. Fair Political Practices Commission
905 P.2d 1248 (California Supreme Court, 1995)
Welton v. City of Los Angeles
556 P.2d 1119 (California Supreme Court, 1976)
San Francisco Street Artists Guild v. Scott
37 Cal. App. 3d 667 (California Court of Appeal, 1974)
Dillon v. Municipal Court
484 P.2d 945 (California Supreme Court, 1971)
People v. Amdur
267 P.2d 445 (California Court of Appeal, 1954)
Haggerty v. County of Kings
256 P.2d 393 (California Court of Appeal, 1953)
People v. Duffy
179 P.2d 876 (California Court of Appeal, 1947)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
179 P.2d 876, 79 Cal. App. Supp. 2d 875, 1947 Cal. App. LEXIS 909, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-duffy-calctapp-1947.