Opinion ID: 419596
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Proprietary Dimension of the FAA-TDI Display Advertising Areas

Text: 39 The distinctions we have drawn with Lehman v. City of Shaker Heights are not meant to obscure the similarities that exist between the governmental interest in making money from display advertising on buses and in making money from display advertising at airport terminals. Rather, the distinctions are important because they highlight the different first amendment considerations that come into play when the government seeks to capitalize on property with public forum characteristics. In this hybrid situation, unlike the wholly commercial nonforum at issue in Lehman, the mere fact that a collateral commercial venture is involved cannot obscure the first amendment interests at stake. See Southeastern Promotions, Ltd. v. Conrad, 420 U.S. 546, 549 n. 4, 555, 95 S.Ct. 1239, 1241 n. 4, 1242, 43 L.Ed.2d 448 (1975) (municipal theatre recognized as a public forum even though the theatre was managed as a nonprofit commercial venture); cf. Burton v. Wilmington Parking Authority, 365 U.S. 715, 81 S.Ct. 856, 6 L.Ed.2d 45 (1961) (state action found for purposes of equal protection analysis under the fourteenth amendment, even though State of Delaware involved in a commercial venture). See generally Karst, Public Enterprise and the Public Forum: A Comment on Southeastern Promotions, Ltd. v. Conrad, 37 OHIO ST.L.J. 247 (1976). The government's ban on political advertisements at the airports, therefore, must be judged by a standard that reflects both the government's proprietary interests in its advertising medium as well as the first amendment interests in the public forum of which the advertisements are a part. 40 In choosing the proper standard, we are mindful of the emphasis placed by the Supreme Court on the character of the governmental restriction in issue. As mentioned above, subject matter restrictions on speech in public forums traditionally have been invalidated, although the Court has stated that such restrictions may be justified if shown to be truly necessary and finely tailored to serve substantial or compelling state interests. See cases cited supra p. 763. On the other hand, the Court repeatedly has sanctioned the use of reasonable, content-neutral time, place, and manner regulations in public forums if the regulations are narrowly tailored to serve a significant government interest and if they leave open ample alternative channels of communication. See, e.g., United States v. Grace, --- U.S. at ----, 103 S.Ct. at 1707; Heffron v. International Society for Krishna Consciousness, 452 U.S. 640, 647, 654, 101 S.Ct. 2559, 2563, 2567, 69 L.Ed.2d 298 (1981). In the present case, the district court rejected the contention that the FAA's ban on political advertising could be analyzed as a content-neutral place or manner regulation: Because the FAA's policy does not restrict all display advertising but restricts only political advertising, a time, place, and manner analysis is inapposite. Memorandum Decision, RD 23 at 4 n. 8. The government does not contest this conclusion on appeal, nor do we see any reason to reject the district court's appraisal. Applying a content-neutral time, place, and manner analysis to the FAA's ban on political advertising would seriously understate the distinct first amendment interests at stake when the government chooses the proper subjects for communication in a given medium. Accordingly, we must recognize the FAA's ban on political advertising for the subject matter restriction that it is. 41 This subject matter restriction is not necessarily impermissible, however. Given that the airport advertising areas exist solely to raise revenue, see Affidavit of George N. Terris, RD 15, it follows that the FAA's revenue interest may constitute a sufficiently substantial or compelling interest to justify the FAA's distinction between political and commercial advertisements if: (1) there exists a convincing factual basis for treating the FAA's ban on political ads as a financial necessity; and (2) the revenue-threatening aspects of political advertisements cannot be ameliorated by less restrictive means. With this standard in mind, we turn to an evaluation of the FAA's subject matter restriction and its asserted justifications. 42