Opinion ID: 786183
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Fine Imposed on Perez Was Reasonable and Viewpoint Neutral

Text: 25 The Supreme Court has admonished that a restriction in a nonpublic forum need only be reasonable; it does not have to be the most or the only reasonable limitation. Cornelius, 473 U.S. at 808. The reasonableness of a restriction is assessed in the light of the purpose of the forum and all the surrounding circumstances. Id. at 809, 105 S.Ct. 3439. [I]n examining the compatibility between the prohibited speech and the particular forum, we ask whether the restrictions on speech are reasonably related to maintaining the environment that the government has deliberately created. Hotel Employees, 311 F.3d at 554 (citation and internal quotation marks omitted). 26 In the instant case, the purpose of the Stewards' meeting was to hear Perez's complaint that Lakow had fixed races by manipulating the number of entries to favor certain owners and to consider Lakow's response and counter-complaint about Perez's prior conduct. The Racing Board's restrictions on Perez's speech were reasonably related to promoting the objective of the session convened — to investigate allegations of impropriety affecting the integrity of the race meeting — and to maintaining the professional atmosphere of the office. Perez's conduct and speech were abusive and disruptive to the tribunal. 4 He prevented the Stewards from performing their legitimate investigative function and he disturbed employees working in the area. When the Stewards' efforts to reason with Perez and to calm him down failed, they properly resorted to the imposition of the fine to limit the disruption he was causing. 27 Furthermore, despite his half-hearted arguments to the contrary, it is clear from the facts of this case that Perez was not penalized for expressing his views about the Racing Secretary. We agree with the District Court, see Perez, 248 F.Supp.2d at 197, that the record of what transpired at the Board's meeting reveals that Perez was fined because his extremely disruptive behavior prevented the Stewards from fully investigating his grievance against Lakow. The Board did not penalize Perez over a disagreement with his viewpoint, but rather because the abusive manner in which he expressed that viewpoint impeded the Stewards' function and thus, was detrimental to the best interests of racing. Indeed, as the District Court observed, Perez's behavior was so outrageous that the Board was denied the opportunity even to consider his viewpoint. Perez, 248 F.Supp.2d at 197. 28 We find that the Stewards' meeting was a nonpublic forum and that the restriction of Perez's speech at that meeting was both viewpoint neutral and reasonable in relation to the forum's function. As such, the application of section 4022.13 in this case was not an impermissible restriction of Perez's speech.