Free Speech
While the first amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees the freedom of speech, courts have upheld the government's claimed regulatory power to impose limits on the time, place, or manner of speech. Some cities in Utah attempt to do this by requiring a permit to stage a protest on public property. Some cities also require a fee for this permit. This metric measures the impositions placed on free speech in each city through this permit process.
In each city we assumed a protest would be held on public property that would not be large enough to block traffic or otherwise trigger any particular fees for the use of city services or facilities. We scored each city on two measures: first, whether a permit would be required by the city for such a protest; second, whether the city charges a fee for the permit. Each of these measures were simple binary scores that were normalized using statistical z-scores prior to combining them. Each measure counted for half of the metric score and the free speech metric counted for 15% of the Individual Liberty category.
To see a specific city's laws for this metric, click on its name in the right column, then find the row in the table below the Individual Liberty category.