Opinion ID: 797514
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Identifying the nature of the relevant forum

Text: 16 To determine the appropriate First Amendment standard under which to review the city's denial of Summum's request, the reviewing court must engage in a forum analysis. The characterization of the forum at issue is crucial because the extent to which the Government can control access depends on the nature of the relevant forum. Cornelius v. NAACP Legal Def. & Educ. Fund, Inc., 473 U.S. 788, 800, 105 S.Ct. 3439, 87 L.Ed.2d 567 (1985). In identifying the relevant forum, the court looks at both (1) the government property to which access is sought and (2) the type of access sought. Summum v. City of Ogden, 297 F.3d 995, 1001 (10th Cir.2002). In this case, Summum seeks to display its monument among other monuments in Pleasant Grove's city park. The permanent monuments in the city park therefore make up the relevant forum. See id. at 1002 (identifying the relevant forum as permanent monuments on the lawn of the . . . municipal building). 17 Having identified the relevant forum, the reviewing court must also determine whether the forum is public or nonpublic in nature. In general, the forum will fall into one of three categories: 18 (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). 19 Id. In the case before us, the District Court indicated that the applicable analysis is whether Pleasant Grove's policy is reasonable and viewpoint neutral. The court therefore analyzed the city's actions using the standard associated with a nonpublic forum. 20 The city park is, however, a traditional public forum. Indeed, the Supreme Court has characterized streets and parks as quintessential public forums, Perry Educ. Ass'n v. Perry Local Educators' Ass'n, 460 U.S. 37, 45, 103 S.Ct. 948, 74 L.Ed.2d 794 (1983), because people have traditionally gathered in these places to exchange ideas and engage in public debate: 21 In places which by long tradition or by government fiat have been devoted to assembly and debate, the rights of the state to limit expressive activity are sharply circumscribed. At one end of the spectrum are streets and parks which have immemorially been held in trust for the use of the public, and, time out of mind, have been used for purposes of assembly, communicating thoughts between citizens, and discussing public questions. 22 Id. (quoting Hague v. CIO, 307 U.S. 496, 515, 59 S.Ct. 954, 83 L.Ed. 1423 (1939)). Because the park is a public forum, the city's restrictions on speech are subject to strict scrutiny. Id.; see also Cornelius, 473 U.S. at 800, 105 S.Ct. 3439 (Because a principal purpose of traditional public fora is the free exchange of ideas, speakers can be excluded from a public forum only when the exclusion is necessary to serve a compelling state interest and the exclusion is narrowly drawn to achieve that interest.); Int'l Soc'y for Krishna Consciousness, Inc. v. Lee (ISKCON), 505 U.S. 672, 678, 112 S.Ct. 2701, 120 L.Ed.2d 541 (1992) (indicating that such restrictions are subject to the highest scrutiny). 23 Moreover, the city cannot close or otherwise limit a traditional public forum by fiat; a traditional public forum is defined by its objective characteristics, not by governmental intent or action. Ark. Educ. Television Comm'n v. Forbes, 523 U.S. 666, 678, 118 S.Ct. 1633, 140 L.Ed.2d 875 (1998); see also First Unitarian Church v. Salt Lake City Corp., 308 F.3d 1114, 1124 (10th Cir.2002) (The government cannot simply declare the First Amendment status of [a traditional public forum] regardless of its nature and its public use.). In short, the nature of the forum in this case is public. See Eagon v. City of Elk City, 72 F.3d 1480, 1486-87 (10th Cir.1996) (rejecting argument that park is a nonpublic forum); see also United States v. Grace, 461 U.S. 171, 177, 103 S.Ct. 1702, 75 L.Ed.2d 736 (1983) (`[P]ublic places' historically associated with the free exercise of expressive activities, such as streets, sidewalks, and parks, are considered, without more, to be `public forums.'); Frisby v. Schultz, 487 U.S. 474, 481, 108 S.Ct. 2495, 101 L.Ed.2d 420 (1988) (noting that all public streets are traditional public forums regardless of their particular character). 24 Pleasant Grove contends that our decisions in City of Ogden and Summum v. Callaghan, 130 F.3d 906 (10th Cir.1997), support its argument that the monuments and other structures in the city park constitute a nonpublic forum. But in both City of Ogden and Callaghan, the property at issue could not be characterized — by tradition or government designation — as a public forum. City of Ogden, 297 F.3d at 1002 (holding that permanent monuments on the grounds of a municipal building were a nonpublic forum because property was not by tradition or designation a forum for public communication (quotations omitted)); Callaghan, 130 F.3d at 916-17 (holding that courthouse lawn was a nonpublic forum). Conversely, in the present case, the property is a park, the kind of property which has immemorially been held in trust for the use of the public. Hague, 307 U.S. at 515, 59 S.Ct. 954. In this way, the present case more closely resembles the facts in Eagon. In Eagon, individuals sued Elk City for violation of their free speech rights after the city excluded their display from Christmas in the Park, an annual event during which individuals and groups were allowed to erect displays in Ackley Park. 72 F.3d at 1483. In conducting our forum analysis, we characterized the relevant forum as Ackley Park during the `Christmas in the Park' event and held that the forum was a traditional public forum, in which content-based restrictions on speech are valid only if necessary to serve a compelling state interest and if narrowly drawn to achieve that end. Id. at 1487. Similarly, the fact that Summum seeks access to a particular means of communication (i.e., the display of a monument) is relevant in defining the forum, but it does not determine the nature of that forum. See Cornelius, 473 U.S. at 802, 105 S.Ct. 3439 (Having identified the forum . . . we must decide whether it is nonpublic or public in nature.). 25 By applying the standard associated with a nonpublic forum, the District Court committed an error of law. In a nonpublic forum, content-based restrictions on speech are permissible as long as they do not discriminate on the basis of the speaker's viewpoint and are reasonable. Perry Educ. Ass'n, 460 U.S. at 49, 103 S.Ct. 948; see also Cornelius, 473 U.S. at 806, 105 S.Ct. 3439 (Control over access to a nonpublic forum can be based on subject matter and speaker identity so long as the distinctions drawn are reasonable in light of the purpose served by the forum and are viewpoint neutral.). But in a public forum, content-based restrictions are presumptively invalid. R.A.V. v. City of St. Paul, 505 U.S. 377, 382, 112 S.Ct. 2538, 120 L.Ed.2d 305 (1992); see also Police Dep't of Chicago v. Mosley, 408 U.S. 92, 96, 92 S.Ct. 2286, 33 L.Ed.2d 212 (1972) (Selective exclusions from a public forum may not be based on content alone, and may not be justified by reference to content alone.). In order for a content-based restriction to survive strict scrutiny, the government must show that its regulation is necessary to serve a compelling state interest and that it is narrowly drawn to achieve that end. Perry Educ. Ass'n, 460 U.S. at 45, 103 S.Ct. 948. As we explain below, Pleasant Grove has failed to justify its restriction on speech under this standard. 4 26