Opinion ID: 778494
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Classification of the Forum

Text: 28 The appropriate standard of Free Speech Clause analysis depends on the classification of the forum. The `permanent monuments on the lawn of the Ogden City municipal building' forum may constitute: (1) a traditional public forum (e.g., parks and streets), (2) a designated public forum (i.e., the government voluntarily transforms a nonpublic forum into a traditional public forum, thereby bestowing all the free speech rights associated with the traditional public forum, albeit on a potentially temporary basis, onto that now `designated public forum'), or (3) a nonpublic forum (i.e., the government retains the right to curtail speech so long as those curtailments are viewpoint neutral and reasonable for the maintenance of the forum's particular official uses). 4 See Cornelius v. NAACP Legal Def. and Educ. Fund, Inc., 473 U.S. 788, 800, 105 S.Ct. 3439, 87 L.Ed.2d 567 (1985); Perry Educ. Ass'n v. Perry Local Educators' Ass'n, 460 U.S. 37, 45-46, 103 S.Ct. 948, 74 L.Ed.2d 794 (1983). In classifying a particular forum as either a designated public forum or nonpublic forum, we begin with consideration of the intent of the relevant governmental entity. See Cornelius, 473 U.S. at 803, 105 S.Ct. 3439 (We will not find that a public forum has been created in the face of clear evidence of 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.). 29 Here, the record is clear that the gallery of permanent monuments on the Municipal Grounds constitutes [p]ublic property which is not by tradition or designation a forum for public communication. Perry, 460 U.S. at 46, 103 S.Ct. 948 (defining a nonpublic forum). We therefore conclude that the permanent monuments on the lawn of the Ogden City municipal building constitute, here, a nonpublic forum. The City of Ogden agrees. See Aples' Br. at 30 (The gallery of monuments — to which [Summum] seeks access — is non-public.). 30