Opinion ID: 515998
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Public Forum Doctrine

Text: 11 As the district court properly recognized, RFK Stadium is government-owned property 7 and appellants' first amendment claims must therefore be analyzed under the rubric of the public forum doctrine. We differ with the district court, however, as to what kinds of showing that doctrine requires to survive a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim under the first amendment. Accordingly, we briefly review the public forum doctrine here. 12 In Cornelius v. NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, 473 U.S. 788, 800, 105 S.Ct. 3439, 3448, 87 L.Ed.2d 567 (1985), the Supreme Court explained that it has adopted a forum analysis as a means of determining when the Government's interest in limiting the use of its property to its intended purpose outweighs the interest of those wishing to use the property for other purposes. Restrictions on speech in a public forum must be necessary to achieve a compelling state interest and narrowly tailored to that end. Id. Restrictions on speech in a nonpublic forum, on the other hand, are subject to a much less stringent test: they must only be reasonable and not an effort to suppress expression merely because public officials oppose the speaker's view. Perry Education Association v. Perry Local Educators' Association, 460 U.S. 37, 46, 103 S.Ct. 948, 955, 74 L.Ed.2d 794 (1983). 13 The traditional public forum is a place that historically has been devoted to the free exchange of views; streets and parks are quintessential examples of traditional public fora. A public forum, however, is not created only by the sheer weight of tradition. A public forum may also be created by virtue of government designation. Cornelius, 473 U.S. at 800, 105 S.Ct. at 3448. It is appellants' contention that RFK Stadium is a public forum by designation. 14 The touchstone for determining whether government property is a designated public forum is the government's intent in establishing and maintaining the property. Id. at 802, 105 S.Ct. at 3449. The fact that the Armory Board now argues that it does not intend to create a public forum is, of course, not dispositive. Intent is not merely a matter of stated purpose; rather, it is, as Cornelius pointed out, a matter to be inferred from a number of factors: 15 [T]he Court has looked to the policy and practice of the government to ascertain whether it intended to designate a place not traditionally open to assembly and debate as a public forum. The Court has also examined the nature of the property and its compatibility with expressive activity to discern the government's intent....  We will not find that a public forum has been created in the face of clear evidence of a contrary intent, nor will we infer that the government intended to create a public forum when the nature of the property is inconsistent with expressive activity. 16 473 U.S. at 802-03, 105 S.Ct. at 3448-49 (citations omitted). Reference to objective indicia of intent ensures that the designated public forum category will not, as some observers have feared, shrink[ ] ... to such insignificance that it [would be] difficult to imagine how a plaintiff could ever successfully prosecute a lawsuit to gain access to such a forum. Post, Between Government and Management: The History and Theory of the Public Forum, 34 UCLA L.Rev. 1713, 1757 (1987); see also 473 U.S. at 825, 105 S.Ct. at 3461 (Blackmun, J., dissenting). For the very fact that the government has restricted speech in the manner challenged in a forum case does not of its own weight demonstrate that the government did not intend to designate a public forum; the Cornelius factors require a court to look for the character of the forum in the nature of the property, its compatibility with expressive activity, and the consistent policy and practice of the government. 17 A number of forum cases emphasize the importance of these objective indicia of intent and the fact that consistent practice can on occasion overcome a bare statement of intent to the contrary. In Perry, supra, the Court stated that 18 [t]he use of the internal school mail by groups not affiliated with the schools is no doubt a relevant consideration. If by policy or by practice the Perry School District has opened its mail system for indiscriminate use by the general public, then [plaintiff] could justifiably argue a public forum has been created. 19 460 U.S. at 47, 103 S.Ct. at 956 (emphasis added). Rather than relying solely on the school district's assertions, the Court looked for indications in the record that permission has been granted as a matter of course to all who seek to distribute material. Id. Finding no such indications, the Court held that the mail system was not a public forum. Similarly, in Greer v. Spock, 424 U.S. 828, 96 S.Ct. 1211, 47 L.Ed.2d 505 (1976), the Court looked to the factual record before rejecting public forum status for the Fort Dix military base. It found that there was a considered Fort Dix policy, objectively and evenhandedly applied, 424 U.S. at 839, 96 S.Ct. at 1218 (emphasis added), of preventing political campaigning on the base, that no candidate of any political stripe had ever been permitted to campaign there, id., and that there was a regular pattern of controlling access to the base, id. at 830, 90 S.Ct. at 1214. In Lehman v. City of Shaker Heights, 418 U.S. 298, 94 S.Ct. 2714, 41 L.Ed.2d 770 (1974), the Court relied on uncontradicted testimony at the trial that during the 26 years of public operation, the Shaker Heights system ... had not accepted or permitted any political or public issue advertising on its vehicles in finding the advertising space on public buses to be a nonpublic forum. Id. at 300-01, 94 S.Ct. at 2715-16 (emphasis in original). And in Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier, --- U.S. ----, 108 S.Ct. 562, 98 L.Ed.2d 592 (1988), the Court found a school newspaper published by a journalism class to be a nonpublic forum on the basis of the district court's factual findings about the degree to which the class instructor actually controlled the details of publication. 108 S.Ct. at 568-69 (emphasis added). 20 A court applying the tenets of these cases to a motion under Rule 12(b)(6) may dismiss a complaint only if it is clear that no relief could be granted under any set of facts that could be proved consistent with the allegations, Hishon v. King & Spalding, 467 U.S. 69, 73, 104 S.Ct. 2229, 2232, 81 L.Ed.2d 59 (1984) (emphasis added); accord Conley v. Gibson, 355 U.S. 41, 45-46, 78 S.Ct. 99, 101-02, 2 L.Ed.2d 80 (1957). Moreover, a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted is generally viewed with disfavor and rarely granted. Doe v. United States Department of Justice, 753 F.2d 1092, 1102 (D.C.Cir.1985). And, where government action is challenged on first amendment grounds, a court should be especially unwilling to decide the legal questions posed by the parties without a more thoroughly developed record of proceedings in which the parties have an opportunity to prove those disputed factual assertions upon which they rely. City of Los Angeles v. Preferred Communications, 476 U.S. 488, 106 S.Ct. 2034, 2037, 90 L.Ed.2d 480 (1986). 21 We conclude that identifying the government's intent in this case raises inherently factual issues that cannot be resolved on a Rule 12(b)(6) motion. Cf. Searcey v. Crim, 815 F.2d 1389 (11th Cir.1987) (public forum question cannot be resolved on motion for summary judgment because question requires development of relevant facts); May v. Evansville-Vanderburgh School Corp., 787 F.2d 1105, 1114-15 (7th Cir.1986) (opining that summary judgment not normally appropriate for resolution of public forum questions). As we discuss, infra, the plaintiffs below have alleged sufficient facts bearing on one or more of the objective indicia of intent to designate a public forum to survive dismissal for failure to state a claim.