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Opinion of the Court
security for parade participants, must examine the content of the message conveyed, estimate the public response to that content, and judge the number of police necessary to meet that response. Cox v. New Hampshire, 312 U. S. 569, distinguished. Pp. 133-136. (d) Neither the $1,000 cap on the permit fee, nor even some lower "nominal" cap, could save the ordinance. Murdock v. Pennsylvania, 319 U. S. 105, 116, distinguished. The level of the fee is irrelevant in this context, because no limit on the fee's size can remedy the ordinance's constitutional infirmities. Pp. 136-137. 913 F. 2d 885 and 934 F. 2d 1482, affirmed.
Blackmun, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Stevens, O'Connor, Kennedy, and Souter, JJ., joined. Rehnquist, C. J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which White, Scalia, and Thomas, JJ., joined, post, p. 137.
Robert S. Stubbs III argued the cause for petitioner. With him on the briefs was Gordon A. Smith.
Richard Barrett argued the cause and filed a brief for respondent.*
Justice Blackmun delivered the opinion of the Court. In this case, with its emotional overtones, we must decide whether the free speech guarantees of the First and Fourteenth Amendments are violated by an assembly and parade ordinance that permits a government administrator to vary the fee for assembling or parading to reflect the estimated cost of maintaining public order.
I
Petitioner Forsyth County is a primarily rural Georgia county approximately 30 miles northeast of Atlanta. It has
*Jody M. Litchford filed a brief for the city of Orlando et al. as amici curiae urging reversal.
Briefs of amici curiae urging affirmance were filed for the American Civil Liberties Union et al. by Eric Neisser, Steven R. Shapiro, John A. Powell, and Elliot M. Mincberg; for the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations by Marsha S. Berzon and Laurence Gold; and for Public Citizen by David C. Vladeck and Alan B. Morrison.
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