In Burton v. Municipal Court (1968) 68 Cal.2d 684, the petitioners sought a writ of prohibition to restrain the court from proceeding with a trial in which they were charged with a violation of a municipal code prohibiting the exhibition of theater films to the public without a permit. The board charged with issuance of such permits (board of police commissioners) contended petitioners lacked standing in the absence of a rejected application for a permit. In holding that such an antecedental procedure is not essential to challenge such a statute, the court stated: "It is settled that a person has the standing to challenge a statute on the ground that it delegates overly broad licensing authority to an administrative officer whether or not his conduct could be proscribed by a properly drawn enactment and whether or not he has applied for a license. One who could have obtained a license for the asking may call into question the whole scheme of licensing when he is prosecuted for failure to procure it. Standing is recognized in such a situation because of the dangers inherent in tolerating, in the realm of the First Amendment, the existence of a penal statute susceptible of sweeping and improper application. (Id. at p. 688.) The court concluded at page 692 the ordinance in question contained "overly broad standards which are fraught with the hazard that an applicant will be denied his rights to free speech and press through exercise of the power of the board, in its discretion, to refuse a permit because of the content of the films which the applicant exhibits in his theater." "Section 103.31(b), under which the board may deny a permit 'for a business which has been or is a public nuisance' is likewise defective. The Civil Code defines a nuisance as 'Anything which is injurious to health, or is indecent or offensive to the senses, or an obstruction to the free use of property, so as to interfere with the comfortable enjoyment of life or property, or unlawfully obstructs the free passage or use, in the customary manner, of any . . . public park, square, street, or highway . . . .' ( Civ. Code, 3479.) Section 3480 defines a public nuisance as 'one which affects at the same time an entire community or neighborhood, or any considerable number of persons . . . .' (See also Pen. Code, 370, 371.) "The provisions of section 103.31(b) are no less vague than those of sections 103.29(b) and 103.31(c)1. To permit a board to refuse to grant a license for the operation of a motion picture theater because in its subjective opinion the operation may be 'indecent or offensive to the senses . . . so as to interfere with the comfortable enjoyment of life or property' of 'any considerable number of persons' obviously vests in the board an exorbitant quantum of discretion and fails to meet the constitutional requirement of narrowly circumscribed standards." ( Burton v. Municipal Court, supra, 68 Cal.2d 684, at p. 692.)