Cite as: 523 U. S. 666 (1998)
Stevens, J., dissenting
cess to a traditional public forum, we have found an analogy between the power to issue permits and the censorial power to impose a prior restraint on speech. Thus, in our review of an ordinance requiring a permit to participate in a parade on city streets, we explained that the ordinance, as written, "fell squarely within the ambit of the many decisions of this Court over the last 30 years, holding that a law subjecting the exercise of First Amendment freedoms to the prior restraint of a license, without narrow, objective, and definite standards to guide the licensing authority, is unconstitutional." Shuttlesworth, 394 U. S., at 150-151.
We recently reaffirmed this approach when considering the constitutionality of an assembly and parade ordinance that authorized a county official to exercise discretion in setting the amount of the permit fee. In Forsyth County v. Nationalist Movement, 505 U. S. 123 (1992), relying on Shut-tlesworth and similar cases,13 we described the breadth of the administrator's discretion thusly:
"There are no articulated standards either in the ordinance or in the county's established practice. The administrator is not required to rely on any objective factors. He need not provide any explanation for his decision, and that decision is unreviewable. Nothing in the law or its application prevents the official from encouraging some views and discouraging others through the arbitrary application of fees. The First Amendment prohibits the vesting of such unbridled discretion in a government official." 505 U. S., at 133 (footnotes omitted).
13 After citing Shuttlesworth, we explained: "The reasoning is simple: If the permit scheme 'involves appraisal of facts, the exercise of judgment, and the formation of an opinion,' Cantwell v. Connecticut, 310 U. S. 296, 305 (1940), by the licensing authority, 'the danger of censorship and of abridgment of our precious First Amendment freedoms is too great' to be permitted, Southeastern Promotions, Ltd. v. Conrad, 420 U. S. 546, 553 (1975)." 505 U. S., at 131.
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