Source: http://www.leagle.com/decision/1983497460US37_1496/PERRY%20ED.%20ASSN.%20v.%20PERRY%20LOCAL%20EDUCATORS'%20ASSN
Timestamp: 2017-06-24 06:59:33
Document Index: 760694134

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 1254', '§ 1254', '§ 1254', '§ 2103', '§ 7116', '§ 19', '§ 151']

PERRY ED. ASSN. v. PERRY LOCAL EDUCATORS' ASSN. | 460 U.S. 37 (1983) | Leagle.com
Citing Case 460 U.S. 37 (1983)
The Metropolitan School District of Perry Township, Ind., operates a public school system of 13 separate schools. Each school building contains a set of mailboxes for the teachers. Interschool delivery by school employees permits messages to be delivered rapidly to teachers in the District.1 The primary function of this internal mail system is to transmit official messages among the teachers and between the teachers and the school administration. In addition, teachers use the system to send personal messages, and individual school building principals have allowed delivery of messages from various private organization.2
The Board permits a school district to provide access to communication facilities to the union selected for the discharge of the exclusive representative duties of representing the bargaining unit and its individual members without having to provide equal access to rival unions.3 Following the election, PEA and the School District negotiated a labor contract in which the School Board gave PEA "access to teachers' mailboxes in which to insert material" and the right to use the interschool mail delivery system to the extent that the School District incurred no extra expense by such use. The labor agreement noted that these access rights were being accorded to PEA "acting as the representative of the teachers" and went on to stipulate that these access rights shall not be granted to any other "school employee organization" — a term of art defined by Indiana law to mean "any organization which has school employees as members and one of whose primary purposes is representing school employees in dealing with their school employer."4 The PEA contract with these provisions was renewed in 1980 and is presently in force.
PEA suggests, however, that because a collective-bargaining contract has "continuing force and [is] intended to be observed and applied in the future," it is in essence a legislative act, and, therefore a state statute within the meaning of § 1254(2). King Manufacturing Co. v. City Council of Augusta, 277 U.S. 100, 104 (1928). In support of its position, PEA points to our decisions treating local ordinances and school board orders as state statutes for § 1254(2) purposes, Doran v. Salem Inn, Inc., 422 U.S. 922, 927, n. 2 (1975); Illinois ex rel. McCollum v. Board of Education, 333 U.S. 203 (1948); Hamilton v. Regents of Univ. of Cal., 293 U.S. 245, 257-258 (1934). In these cases, however, legislative action was involved — the unilateral promulgation of a rule with continuing legal effect. Unlike a local ordinance or even a school board rule, a collective-bargaining agreement is not unilaterally adopted by a lawmaking body; it emerges from negotiation and requires the approval of both parties to the agreement. Not every government action which has the effect of law is legislative action. We have previously emphasized that statutes authorizing appeals are to be strictly construed, Fornaris v. Ridge Tool Co., 400 U.S. 41, 42, n. 1 (1970), and in light of that policy, we do not find that § 1254(2) extends to cover this case.5 We therefore dismiss the appeal for want of jurisdiction. See, e. g., Lockwood v. Jefferson Area Teachers Assn., 459 U.S. 804 (1982) (appeal dismissed for want of jurisdiction and certiorari denied).
Nevertheless, the decision below is subject to our review by writ of certiorari. 28 U. S. C. § 2103; Palmore v. United States, 411 U.S. 389, 396 (1973). The constitutional issues presented are important and the decision below conflicts with the judgment of other federal and state courts.6 Therefore, regarding PEA's jurisdictional statement as a petition for a writ of certiorari, we grant certiorari.
A second category consists of public property which the State has opened for use by the public as a place for expressive activity. The Constitution forbids a State to enforce certain exclusions from a forum generally open to the public even if it was not required to create the forum in the first place. Widmar v. Vincent, 454 U.S. 263 (1981) (university meeting facilities); City of Madison Joint School District v. Wisconsin Employment Relations Comm'n, 429 U.S. 167 (1976) (school board meeting); Southeastern Promotions, Ltd. v. Conrad, 420 U.S. 546 (1975) (municipal theater).7 Although a State is not required to indefinitely retain the open character of the facility, as long as it does so it is bound by the same standards as apply in a traditional public forum. Reasonable time, place, and manner regulations are permissible, and a content-based prohibition must be narrowly drawn to effectuate a compelling state interest. Widmar v. Vincent, supra, at 269-270.
The school mail facilities at issue here fall within this third category. The Court of Appeals recognized that Perry School District's interschool mail system is not a traditional public forum: "We do not hold that a school's internal mail system is a public forum in the sense that a school board may not close it to all but official business if it chooses." 652 F. 2d, at 1301. On this point the parties agree.8 Nor do the parties dispute that, as the District Court observed, the "normal and intended function [of the school mail facilities] is to facilitate internal communication of school-related matters to the teachers." Perry Local Educators' Assn. v. Hohlt, IP 79-189-C (SD Ind., Feb. 25, 1980), p. 4. The internal mail system, at least by policy, is not held open to the general public. It is instead PLEA's position that the school mail facilities have become a "limited public forum" from which it may not be excluded because of the periodic use of the system by private non-school-connected groups, and PLEA's own unrestricted access to the system prior to PEA's certification as exclusive representative.
Because the school mail system is not a public forum, the School District had no "constitutional obligation per se to let any organization use the school mail boxes." Connecticut State Federation of Teachers v. Board of Ed. Members, 538 F.2d 471, 481 (CA2 1976). In the Court of Appeals' view, however, the access policy adopted by the Perry schools favors a particular viewpoint, that of PEA, on labor relations, and consequently must be strictly scrutinized regardless of whether a public forum is involved. There is, however, no indication that the School Board intended to discourage one viewpoint and advance another. We believe it is more accurate to characterize the access policy as based on the status of the respective unions rather than their views. Implicit in the concept of the nonpublic forum is the right to make distinctions in access on the basis of subject matter and speaker identity. These distinctions may be impermissible in a public forum but are inherent and inescapable in the process of limiting a nonpublic forum to activities compatible with the intended purpose of the property. The touchstone for evaluating these distinctions is whether they are reasonable in light of the purpose which the forum at issue serves.9
The differential access provided PEA and PLEA is reasonable because it is wholly consistent with the District's legitimate interest in " ` "preserv[ing] the property . . . for the use to which it is lawfully dedicated." ' " United States Postal Service, 453 U. S., at 129-130. Use of school mail facilities enables PEA to perform effectively its obligations as exclusive representative of all Perry Township teachers.10 Conversely, PLEA does not have any official responsibility in connection with the School District and need not be entitled to the same rights of access to school mailboxes. We observe that providing exclusive access to recognized bargaining representatives is a permissible labor practice in the public sector.11 We have previously noted that the "designation of a union as exclusive representative carries with it great responsibilities. The tasks of negotiating and administering a collective-bargaining agreement and representing the interests of employees in settling disputes and processing grievances are continuing and difficult ones." Abood v. Detroit Bd. of Ed., 431 U.S. 209, 221 (1977). Moreover, exclusion of the rival union may reasonably be considered a means of insuring labor peace within the schools. The policy "serves to prevent the District's schools from becoming a battlefield for inter-union squabbles."12
The Court of Appeals accorded little or no weight to PEA's special responsibilities. In its view these responsibilities, while justifying PEA's access, did not justify denying equal access to PLEA. The Court of Appeals would have been correct if a public forum were involved here. But the internal mail system is not a public forum. As we have already stressed, when government property is not dedicated to open communication the government may — without further justification — restrict use to those who participate in the forum's official business.13
Finally, the reasonableness of the limitations on PLEA's access to the school mail system is also supported by the substantial alternative channels that remain open for union-teacher communication to take place. These means range from bulletin boards to meeting facilities to the United States mail. During election periods, PLEA is assured of equal access to all modes of communication. There is no showing here that PLEA's ability to communicate with teachers is seriously impinged by the restricted access to the internal mail system. The variety and type of alternative modes of access present here compare favorably with those in other nonpublic forum cases where we have upheld restrictions on access. See, e. g., Greer v. Spock, 424 U. S., at 839 (servicemen free to attend political rallies off base); Pell v. Procunier, 417 U.S. 817, 827-828 (1974) (prison inmates may communicate with media by mail and through visitors).
The Seventh Circuit and PLEA rely on Police Department of Chicago v. Mosley, 408 U.S. 92 (1972), and Carey v. Brown, 447 U.S. 455 (1980). In Mosley and Carey, we struck down prohibitions on peaceful picketing in a public forum. In Mosley, the city of Chicago permitted peaceful picketing on the subject of a school's labor-management dispute, but prohibited other picketing in the immediate vicinity of the school. In Carey, the challenged state statute barred all picketing of residences and dwellings except the peaceful picketing of a place of employment involved in a labor dispute. In both cases, we found the distinction between classes of speech violative of the Equal Protection Clause. The key to those decisions, however, was the presence of a public forum.14 In a public forum, by definition, all parties have a constitutional right of access and the State must demonstrate compelling reasons for restricting access to a single class of speakers, a single viewpoint, or a single subject.
City of Madison Joint School District v. Wisconsin Employment Relations Comm'n, supra, considered the question of whether a State may constitutionally require a board of education to prohibit teachers other than union representatives from speaking at public meetings about matters relating to pending collective-bargaining negotiations. The board had been found guilty of a prohibited labor practice for permitting a teacher to speak who opposed one of the proposals advanced by the union in contract negotiations. The board was ordered to cease and desist from permitting employees, other than union representatives, to appear and to speak at board meetings on matters subject to collective bargaining. We held this order invalid. During the course of our opinion we stated: "Whatever its duties as an employer, when the board sits in public meetings to conduct public business and hear the views of citizens, it may not be required to discriminate between speakers on the basis of their employment, or the content of their speech. See Police Dept. of Chicago v. Mosley, 408 U.S. 92, 96 (1972)." 429 U. S., at 176 (footnote omitted).2
Admittedly, this Court has not always required content neutrality in restrictions on access to government property. We upheld content-based exclusions in Lehman v. City of Shaker Heights, 418 U.S. 298 (1974), in Greer v. Spock, 424 U.S. 828 (1976), and in Jones v. North Carolina Prisoners' Union, 433 U.S. 119 (1977). All three cases involved an unusual forum, which was found to be nonpublic, and the speech was determined for a variety of reasons to be incompatible with the forum. These cases provide some support for the notion that the government is permitted to exclude certain subjects from discussion in nonpublic forums.3 They provide no support, however, for the notion that government, once it has opened up government property for discussion of specific subjects, may discriminate among viewpoints on those topics. Although Greer, Lehman, and Jones permitted content-based restrictions, none of the cases involved viewpoint discrimination. All of the restrictions were viewpoint-neutral. We expressly noted in Greer that the exclusion was "objectively and evenhandedly applied." 424 U. S., at 839.4
Once the government permits discussion of certain subject matter, it may not impose restrictions that discriminate among viewpoints on those subjects whether a nonpublic forum is involved or not.5 This prohibition is implicit in the Mosley line of cases, in Tinker v. Des Moines School District, 393 U.S. 503 (1969), and in those cases in which we have approved content-based restrictions on access to government property that is not a public forum. We have never held that government may allow discussion of a subject and then discriminate among viewpoints on that particular topic, even if the government for certain reasons may entirely exclude discussion of the subject from the forum. In this context, the greater power does not include the lesser because for First Amendment purposes exercise of the lesser power is more threatening to core values. Viewpoint discrimination is censorship in its purest form and government regulation that discriminates among viewpoints threatens the continued vitality of "free speech."
The Court addresses only briefly the respondents' claim that the exclusive-access provision amounts to viewpoint discrimination. In rejecting this claim, the Court starts from the premise that the school mail system is not a public forum7 and that, as a result, the Board has no obligation to grant access to the respondents. The Court then suggests that there is no indication that the Board intended to discourage one viewpoint and to advance another. In the Court's view, the exclusive-access policy is based on the status of the respective parties rather than on their views. The Court then states that "[i]mplicit in the concept of the nonpublic forum is the right to make distinctions in access on the basis of subject matter and speaker identity." Ante, at 49. According to the Court, "[t]hese distinctions may be impermissible in a public forum but are inherent and inescapable in the process of limiting a nonpublic forum to activities compatible with the intended purpose of the property." Ibid.
As the Court of Appeals pointed out, the exclusive-access policy is both "overinclusive and underinclusive" as a means of serving the State's interest in the efficient discharge of the petitioner's legal duties to the teachers. Perry Local Educators' Assn. v. Hohlt, 652 F. 2d, at 1300. The policy is overinclusive because it does not strictly limit the petitioner's use of the mail system to performance of its special legal duties and underinclusive because the Board permits outside organizations with no special duties to the teachers, or to the students, to use the system. Ibid. The Court of Appeals also suggested that even if the Board had attempted to tailor the policy more carefully by denying outside groups access to the system and by expressly limiting the petitioner's use of the system to messages relating to its official duties, "the fit would still be questionable, for it might be difficult — both in practice and in principle — effectively to separate `necessary' communications from propaganda." Ibid. The Court of Appeals was justly concerned with this problem, because the scope of the petitioner's "legal duties" might be difficult, if not impossible, to define with precision. In this regard, we alluded to the potential scope of collective-bargaining responsibilities in City of Madison Joint School District v. Wisconsin Employment Relations Comm'n, 429 U.S. 167 (1976), when we stated: "[T]here is virtually no subject concerning the operation of the school system that could not also be characterized as a potential subject of collective bargaining." Id., at 177.9
Putting aside the difficulties with the fit between this policy and the asserted interests, the Court of Appeals properly pointed out that the policy is invalid "because it furthers no discernible state interest." Perry Local Educators' Assn. v. Hohlt, 652 F. 2d, at 1300. While the Board may have a legitimate interest in granting the petitioner access to the system, it has no legitimate interest in making that access exclusive by denying access to the respondents. As the Court of Appeals stated: "Without an independent reason why equal access for other labor groups and individual teachers is undesirable, the special duties of the incumbent do not justify opening the system to the incumbent alone." Ibid. In this case, for the reasons discussed below, there is no independent reason for denying access to the respondents.10
The petitioner also argues, and the Court agrees, ante, at 52, that the exclusive-access policy is justified by the State's interest in preserving labor peace. As the Court of Appeals found, there is no evidence on this record that granting access to the respondents would result in labor instability. 652 F. 2d, at 1301.11 In addition, there is no reason to assume that the respondents' messages would be any more likely to cause labor discord when received by members of the majority union than the petitioner's messages would when received by the respondents. Moreover, it is noteworthy that both the petitioner and the respondents had access to the mail system for some time prior to the representation election. See ante, at 39. There is no indication that this policy resulted in disruption of the school environment.12
Although the State's interest in preserving labor peace in the schools in order to prevent disruption is unquestionably substantial, merely articulating the interest is not enough to sustain the exclusive-access policy in this case. There must be some showing that the asserted interest is advanced by the policy. In the absence of such a showing, the exclusive-access policy must fall.13
FootNotes * Edwin Vieira, Jr., filed a brief for the Public Service Research Council as amicus curiae urging affirmance.
6. Constitutional objections to similar access policies have been rejected by all but one other federal or state court to consider the issue. See Connecticut State Federation of Teachers v. Board of Ed. Members, 538 F.2d 471 (CA2 1976); Memphis American Federation of Teachers Local 2032 v. Board of Ed., 534 F.2d 699 (CA6 1976); Teachers Local 3724 v. North St. Francois County School District, 103 LRRM 2865 (ED Mo. 1979); Haukedahl v. School District No. 108, No. 75-C-3641 (ND Ill., May 14, 1976); Federation of Delaware Teachers v. De La Warr Board of Ed., 335 F.Supp. 385 (Del. 1971); Local 858, American Federation of Teachers v. School District No. 1, 314 F.Supp. 1069 (Colo. 1970); Maryvale Educators Assn. v. Newman, 70 App. Div. 2d 758, 416 N.Y.S.2d 876, appeal denied, 48 N.Y.2d 605, 424 N.Y.S.2d 1025 (1979); Geiger v. Duval County School Board, 357 So.2d 442 (Fla. App. 1978); Clark Classroom Teachers Assn. v. Clark County School District, 91 Nev. 143, 532 P.2d 1032 (1975) (per curiam). The only case holding unconstitutional a school district's refusal to grant a minority union access to teacher's mailboxes or other facilities while granting such privileges to a majority union is Teachers Local 399 v. Michigan City Area Schools, No. 72-S-94 (ND Ind., Jan. 24, 1973), vacated on other grounds, 499 F.2d 115 (CA7 1974).
7. A public forum may be created for a limited purpose such as use by certain groups, e. g., Widmar v. Vincent (student groups), or for the discussion of certain subjects, e. g., City of Madison Joint School District v. Wisconsin Public Employment Relations Comm's (school board business).
9. JUSTICE BRENNAN minimizes the importance of public forum analysis and all but rejects Greer v. Spock, 424 U.S. 828 (1976); Lehman v. City of Shaker Heights, 418 U.S. 298 (1974); and Jones v. North Carolina Prisoners' Union, 433 U.S. 119 (1977), in each of which, of course, he was in dissent. It will not do, however, to put aside the Court's decisions holding that not all public property is a public forum, or to dismiss Greer, Lehman, and Jones as decisions of limited scope involving "unusual forums." In United States Postal Service v. Council of Greenburgh Civic Assns., 453 U.S. 114, 129 (1981), the Court rejected this argument stating that "[i]t is difficult to conceive of any reason why this Court should treat a letterbox differently for First Amendment access purposes than it has in the past treated the military base in Greer . . . , the jail or prison in Adderley v. Florida, 385 U.S. 39 (1966), and Jones . . . , or the advertising space made available in city rapid transit cars in Lehman." The Court went on to say that the mere fact that an instrumentality is used for the communication of ideas does not make a public forum, and to reaffirm JUSTICE BLACKMUN'S observation in Lehman: " `Were we to hold to the contrary, display cases in public hospitals, libraries, office buildings, military compounds, and other public facilities, immediately would become Hyde Parks open to every would-be pamphleteer and politician. This the Constitution does not require.' " United States Postal Service v. Council of Greenburgh Civic Assns., supra, at 130, n. 6, quoting 418 U. S., at 304.
11. See, e. g., Broward County School Board, 6 FPER ¶ 11088 (Fla. Pub. Emp. Rel. Comm'n, 1980); Union County Board of Education, 2 NJPER 50 (N. J. Pub. Emp. Rel. Comm'n, 1976). Differentiation in access is also permitted in federal employment, and, indeed, it may be an unfair labor practice under 5 U. S. C. § 7116(a)(3) (1976 ed., Supp. V) to grant access to internal communication facilities to unions other than the exclusive representative. That provision states that it shall be an unfair labor practice for an agency to "sponsor, control or otherwise assist any labor organization" aside from routine services provided other unions of "equivalent status." A number of administrative decisions construing this language as it earlier appeared in Exec. Order No. 11491, 3 CFR 861 § 19(a)(3) (1966-1970 Comp.), have taken this view. See, e. g., Asst. Sec. Labor-Management Reports, Dept. of the Navy, Navy Commissary Store Complex, Oakland, A/SLMR No. 654 (U. S. Dept. of Labor, 1976); Commissary, Fort Meade, Dept. of the Army, A/SLMR No. 793 (U. S. Dept. of Labor 1977); Dept. of the Air Force, Grissom Air Force Base, A/SLMR No. 852 (U. S. Dept. of Labor, 1977); Dept. of Transportation, Federal Aviation Administration, 2 FLRA No. 48 (1979).
Exclusive-access provisions in the private sector have not been directly challenged, and thus have yet to be expressly approved, but the National Labor Relations Board and the courts have invalidated only those restrictions that prohibit individual employees from soliciting and distributing union literature during nonworking hours in nonworking areas. NLRB v. Magnavox Co., 415 U.S. 322 (1974); Republic Aviation Corp. v. NLRB, 324 U.S. 793 (1945); NLRB v. Arrow Molded Plastics, Inc., 653 F.2d 280, 283-284 (CA6 1981); General Motors Corp., 212 N. L. R. B. 133, 134 (1974). The Court of Appeals' view that NLRB v. Magnavox Co., supra. held that an exclusive-access provision such as this would be impermissible under the National Labor Relations Act, 29 U. S. C. §§ 151-169 (1976 ed. and Supp. V), is a clear misreading of our decision.
12. Haukedahl v. School District No. 108, 75-C-3641 (ND Ill., May 14, 1976). This factor was discounted by the Court of Appeals because there is no showing in the record of past disturbances stemming from PLEA's past access to the internal mail system or evidence that future disturbance would be likely. We have not required that such proof be present to justify the denial of access to a nonpublic forum on grounds that the proposed use may disrupt the property's intended function. See, e. g., Greer v. Spock, 424 U.S. 828 (1976).
13. The Court of Appeals was also mistaken in finding that the exclusive-access policy was not closely tailored to the official responsibilities of PEA. The Court of Appeals thought the policy overinclusive — because the collective-bargaining agreement does not limit PEA's use of the mail system to messages related to its special legal duties. The record, however, does not establish that PEA enjoyed or claimed unlimited access by usage or otherwise; indeed, the collective-bargaining agreement indicates that the right of access was accorded to PEA "acting as the representative of the teachers." In these circumstances, we do not find it necessary to decide the reasonableness of a grant of access for unlimited purposes.
14. The Court emphasized the point in both cases. Mosley, 408 U. S., at 96 ("Selective exclusions from a public forum may not be based on content alone"); Carey, 447 U. S., at 461 ("When government regulation discriminates among speech-related activities in a public forum, the Equal Protection Clause mandates that the legislation be finely tailored to serve substantial state interests").
2. See also Widmar v. Vincent, 454 U.S. 263, 280 (1981) (STEVENS, J., concurring in judgment) ("[T]he university . . . may not allow its agreement or disagreement with the viewpoint of a particular speaker to determine whether access to a forum will be granted. If a state university is to deny recognition to a student organization — or is to give it a lesser right to use school facilities than other student groups — it must have a valid reason for doing so"); First National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti, 435 U.S. 765, 784-786 (1978) ("In the realm of protected speech, the legislature is constitutionally disqualified from dictating the subjects about which persons may speak and the speakers who may address a public issue. . . . Especially where, as here, the legislature's suppression of speech suggests an attempt to give one side of a debatable public question an advantage in expressing its views to the people, the First Amendment is plainly offended" (citation omitted) (footnote omitted)); Healy v. James, 408 U.S. 169, 187-188 (1972) (the State "may not restrict speech or association simply because it finds the views expressed by any group to be abhorrent").
3. There are several factors suggesting that these decisions are narrow and of limited importance. First, the forums involved were unusual. A military base was involved in Greer v. Spock, advertising space on a city transit system in Lehman v. City of Shaker Heights, and a prison in Jones v. North Carolina Prisoners' Union. Moreover, the speech involved was arguably incompatible with each forum, especially in Greer, which involved speeches and demonstrations of a partisan political nature on a military base, and in Jones, which involved labor union organizational activities in a prison. Finally, we have noted the limited scope of Greer and Lehman in subsequent opinions. See, e. g., Consolidated Edison Co. v. Public Service Comm'n, 447 U.S. 530, 539-540 (1980); Metromedia, Inc. v. San Diego, 453 U.S. 490, 514, n. 19 (1981) (plurality opinion); Erznoznik v. City of Jacksonville, 422 U.S. 205, 209 (1975).
4. In his concurring opinion in Greer v. Spock, JUSTICE POWELL noted the absence of any viewpoint discrimination in the regulations and stated that the military authorities would be barred from discriminating among viewpoints on political issues. 424 U. S., at 848, n. 3.
5. This is not to suggest that a government may not close a nonpublic forum altogether or limit access to the forum to those involved in the "official business" of the agency. Restrictions of this type are consistent with the government's right " `to preserve the property under its control for the use to which it is lawfully dedicated.' " Ante, at 46 (quoting United States Postal Service v. Council of Greenburgh Civic Assns., supra, at 129-130). Limiting access to a nonpublic government forum to those involved in the "official business" of the agency also protects the interest of the government, qua government, in speaking clearly and definitively.
6. Lower courts have recognized that the prohibition against viewpoint discrimination affords speakers protection independent of the public forum doctrine. See, e. g., National Black United Fund, Inc. v. Devine, 215 U. S. App. D. C. 130, 136, 667 F.2d 173, 179 (1981); Jaffe v. Alexis, 659 F.2d 1018, 1020-1021, n. 2 (CA9 1981); Bonner-Lyons v. School Committee of City of Boston, 480 F.2d 442, 444 (CA1 1973). In Jaffe, the Ninth Circuit stated: "When the content of the speaker's message forms the basis for its selective regulation, public forum analysis is no longer crucial; the government must still justify the restriction and the justification `must be scrutinized more carefully to ensure that communication has not been prohibited "merely because public officials disapprove of the speaker's views." ' " 659 F. 2d, at 1020-1021, n. 2 (citations omitted). See also United States Postal Service v. Council of Greenburgh Civic Assns., supra, at 136, 140 (BRENNAN, J., concurring in judgment).
7. It is arguable that the school mail system could qualify for treatment as a public forum of some description if one focuses on whether " `the manner of expression is basically incompatible with the normal activity of a particular place at a particular time.' Grayned v. City of Rockford, [408 U. S.], at 116." United States Postal Service v. Council of Greenburgh Civic Associations, 453 U. S., at 136 (BRENNAN, J., concurring in judgment). It is difficult to see how granting the respondents access to the mailboxes would be incompatible with the normal activities of the school especially in view of the fact that the petitioner and outside groups enjoy such access. The petitioner's messages, and certainly those of the outside groups, do not appear to be any more compatible with the normal activity of the school than the respondents' message would be. It is not necessary to reach this issue, however, in view of the existence of impermissible viewpoint discrimination.
9. The Court rejects the Court of Appeals' finding that the exclusive-access policy was overinclusive on the ground that "the record . . . does not establish that [the petitioner] enjoyed or claimed unlimited access by usage or otherwise; indeed, the collective-bargaining agreement indicates that the right of access was accorded to [the petitioner] `acting as the representative of the teachers.' " Ante, at 53, n. 13. Under these circumstances, the Court suggests that it is unnecessary "to decide the reasonableness of a grant of access for unlimited purposes." Ibid. This argument is flawed in three ways. First, the Court of Appeals found that "the collective bargaining agreement [did] not limit [the petitioner's] use of the mail system to messages related to its special legal duties," Perry Local Educators' Assn. v. Hohlt, 652 F.2d 1286, 1300 (CA7 1981), and there is nothing in the record to indicate that the petitioner did not enjoy unlimited access. Second, we noted above the nearly limitless scope of collective-bargaining responsibilities. See supra, at 67. With no apparent monitoring of the petitioner's messages by the board, Perry Local Educators' Assn. v. Hohlt, supra, at 1293, n. 29, it is clear that there is no real limit to the petitioner's "special legal duties." Finally, even assuming that the Board had a narrowly tailored policy that expressly limited the petitioner's access to official messages and included school monitoring of the messages, it still would be difficult, as the Court of Appeals pointed out, "to separate `necessary' communications from propaganda." 652 F. 2d, at 1300.
11. The Court suggests that proof of disruption is not necessary "to justify the denial of access to a nonpublic forum on grounds that the proposed use may disrupt the property's intended function," ante, at 52, n. 12, and again cites Greer v. Spock, supra. In Tinker v. Des Moines School District, 393 U.S. 503 (1969), which is discussed supra, at 58, we noted that "in our system, undifferentiated fear or apprehension of disturbance is not enough to overcome the right to freedom of expression." 393 U. S., at 508. Later, we stated that "where there is no finding and no showing that engaging in the forbidden conduct would `materially and substantially interfere with the requirements of appropriate discipline in the operation of the school,' the prohibition cannot be sustained." Id., at 509 (citation omitted). Finally, we stated that "the prohibition of expression of one particular opinion, at least without evidence that it is necessary to avoid material and substantial interference with schoolwork or discipline, is not constitutionally permissible." Id., at 511. It is noteworthy that Tinker involved what the Court would be likely to describe as a nonpublic forum. See also City of Madison Joint School District v. Wisconsin Employment Relations Comm'n, 429 U.S. 167, 173-174 (1976); Healy v. James, 408 U. S., at 190-191. These cases establish that the State must offer evidence to support an allegation of potential disruption in order to sustain a restriction on protected speech.
13. The Court also cites the availability of alternative channels of communication in support of the "reasonableness" of the exclusive-access policy. Ante, at 53. In a detailed discussion, the Court of Appeals properly concluded that the other channels of communication available to the respondents were "not nearly as effective as the internal mail system." Perry Local Educators' Assn. v. Hohlt, 652 F. 2d, at 1299. See also id., at 1299-1300. In addition, the Court apparently disregards the principle that "one is not to have the exercise of his liberty of expression in appropriate places abridged on the plea that it may be exercised in some other place." Schneider v. State, 308 U.S. 147, 163 (1939). In this case, the existence of inferior alternative channels of communication does not affect the conclusion that the petitioner has failed to justify the viewpoint-discriminatory exclusive-access policy.