Joseph McKenna

“ It was based on the necessity of the regulation of rights by uniform and general laws,-a necessity which is no better observed by a discretion in a board of aldermen or council of a city than in a mayor; and the cases, therefore, are authority against the contention of plaintiff in error. Besides, it is opposed by Davis v. Com., 167 U.S. 43, 17 Sup. Ct. 731.
Davis was convicted of violating an ordinance of the city of Boston by making a public address on the 'Common,' without obtaining a permit from the mayor. ”

“ The cases were reviewed by Mr. Justice McFarland, of the supreme court of California, in Re Flaherty, 105 Cal. 558, 38 Pac. 981, in which an ordinance which prohibited the beating of drums on the streets of one of the towns of that state, 'without special permit in writing so to do first had and obtained from the president of the board of trustees,' was passed on and sustained. Summarizing the cases, the learned justice said:
'Statutes and ordinances have been sustained prohibiting awnings without the consent of the mayor and aldermen (Pedrick v. Bailey, 12 Gray, 161) ”

“ Dering; but the other cases seem to have proceeded upon the principle that the right of persons to assemble and parade was a well-established and inherent right, which could be regulated, but not prohibited or made dependent upon any officer or officers, and that its regulation must be by well-defined conditions. ”