Ordinances requiring permits for parades, festivals and demonstrations are
lawful and are constrained where expressive activity is involved.
Content neutrality. Criteria must not depend on the message. Fee structures
that vary with anticipated hostility to the message — hostile audience fees —
are unconstitutional.
Definite standards. Officials must not have unbridled discretion. The
ordinance should state the grounds for denial exhaustively.
Prompt decision and review. A short, fixed deadline for a decision and an
avenue for prompt judicial review, because delay operates as a denial.
Fees. Limited to administrative costs; some jurisdictions waive them for
expressive events, and cost recovery for police protection is constitutionally
fraught.
Insurance and indemnity requirements should include waiver provisions for
those unable to obtain coverage for expressive activity.
Spontaneous events. An exemption or expedited process for demonstrations
responding to breaking events, since a multi-week lead time forecloses them.
Size thresholds. Permits should not be required for small gatherings on
sidewalks, and ordinances catching a handful of people with signs are routinely
enjoined.
Time, place and manner conditions — route, hours, sound amplification,
cleanup — are permissible if narrowly tailored and leaving ample alternatives.
