Opinion ID: 718699
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Nature of the Forum

Text: 11 The government's ability to restrict protected speech by private persons on government property depends, in part, on the nature of the forum. Cornelius v. NAACP Legal Defense & Educ. Fund, 473 U.S. 788, 797, 105 S.Ct. 3439, 3446, 87 L.Ed.2d 567 (1985). The three types of forums that may exist on government property are traditional public forums, designated public forums, and nonpublic forums. Id. at 802, 105 S.Ct. at 3449. Traditional public forums are places such as streets and parks that by long tradition ... have been devoted to assembly and debate. Perry Educ. Assn. v. Perry Local Educators' Assn., 460 U.S. 37, 45, 103 S.Ct. 948, 954, 74 L.Ed.2d 794 (1983). Designated public forums are those created by government designation of a place or channel of communication for use by the public at large for assembly and speech, for use by certain speakers, or for the discussion of certain subjects. Cornelius, 473 U.S. at 802, 105 S.Ct. at 3449. Thus, designated public forums may be limited in terms of participants and in terms of subject matter. University facilities opened for meetings of registered student organizations qualify as a designated public forum, Widmar, 454 U.S. at 267-68, 102 S.Ct. at 273-74, as do public school classrooms that are available to the general public outside of school hours for limited purposes, Lamb's Chapel, 508 U.S. 384, 390-94, 113 S.Ct. 2141, 2146-47. In Rosenberger v. Rector & Visitors of Univ. of Va., --- U.S. ----, 115 S.Ct. 2510, 132 L.Ed.2d 700 (1995), the Supreme Court treated a university's student activities fund as a designated public forum, albeit more in a metaphysical than in a spatial or geographic sense. Id. at ----, 115 S.Ct. at 2517. A nonpublic forum is government property that is not by tradition or designation a forum for public communication. Perry, 460 U.S. at 46, 103 S.Ct. at 955-56. 12 The Bear Canyon Senior Center is a designated public forum. It may not be classified as a traditional public forum because it is not a traditional location of public debate or assembly. It is, however, a place that has been opened to the public for discussive purposes. The City has permitted lectures and classes on a broad range of subjects by both members and non-members at its Senior Centers. The City limits this designated public forum in two ways. First, the City imposes an age requirement for participation, although this limitation is rather flexible where groups or spouses are involved. Second, the City limits the subject matter of presentations to topics of interest to senior citizens. The subject matter limitation has also been extremely flexible in practice, as evidenced by the long list of diverse topics that have been presented in the past.