Opinion ID: 7402
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Reasonable Restriction

Text: The State may refuse to grant the Klan's application to adopt a section of highway near the Vidor housing project as a reasonable restriction on speech in a nonpublic forum. The reasonableness of a government restriction of access to a nonpublic forum is assessed 6 in the light of the purpose of the forum and all the surrounding circumstances. Cornelius, 473 U.S. at 809, 105 S.Ct. at 3453. The Klan wishes to adopt a portion of highway near a housing project in Vidor, Texas which is under an order to desegregate. The Klan has engaged in such virile opposition to the desegregation of the project that a state court has seen fit to enjoin the Klan from blocking access to the project and from intimidating residents. The State provided summary judgment evidence indicating that the residents of the project would feel fear and frustration if the Klan were allowed to adopt a highway near the project. The posting of a sign outside of the Vidor project announcing the Klan's name would likely cause Vidor residents a great deal of anxiety. The presence of Klan members on the highway in Klan attire picking up trash at the entrance to the project would invite strife and interfere with compliance with court orders. Given this context, the State could reasonably believe that the Klan's adoption of a section of highway outside the project would result in further intimidation of the residents of the housing project and would create unreasonable conflict.2 The district court found and the State could reasonably believe that the Program would be used by the Klan as a subterfuge, particularly after the state court enjoined various Klan activities in Vidor relating to the project, allowing the Klan to discourage 2 It has not been shown, in this declaratory judgment action, that violence or strife would necessarily occur if the Klan adopted a section of highway near the housing project. However, the State need not wait until havoc is wreaked to restrict access ... Cornelius, 473 U.S. at 809, 105 S.Ct. at 3453. 7 desegregation of the project by means that it could not openly accomplish. The State may conclude that participation by the Klan in the program would substantially impede the State's ability to encourage compliance with the federal injunction requiring desegregation. The purpose of the Program is to encourage trash removal on the highways of Texas. The Program was not meant to be used as a platform for launching a program of intimidation, nor as a means of inciting tension and possibly even violence. Use of the Program to thwart a federal court order requiring desegregation is certainly not consistent with its purposes. The State would act reasonably in preventing the use of the Program for such purposes by prohibiting the participation requested by the Klan. The State may also reasonably conclude that the adoption by the Klan of a section of highway outside of Vidor would frustrate the use of the State's public highways. The summary judgment evidence supports a finding that project residents and their family members would be reluctant to use highways adopted by the Klan, particularly if the Klan was present gathering trash. We must consider the function and nature of the relevant government property, in addition to the purpose of the relevant forum within that property, in evaluating the limits that may be imposed on speech. Cornelius, 473 U.S. at 800-03, 105 S.Ct. at 3448-49. The Texas highways exist for the purpose of facilitating movement around the state. The State does not act unreasonably when it prohibits speech which would interfere with that function. 8 The State may also reasonably reject the Klan's application to protect the privacy of project residents in their homes and to prevent the residents from becoming captive audiences. One of the portions of highway which the Klan seeks to adopt provides the only means of entry or exit for the Vidor public housing project. If the Klan's name were placed on a sign near the entry to the project, the residents of the project would be forced to receive the message of the Klan's presence each time they wished to leave or return to their homes in the project. In Frisby v. Schultz, the Supreme Court recognized residential privacy as a significant governmental interest justifying limitations on speech even in the context of a public forum. 487 U.S. 474, 483-87, 108 S.Ct. 2495, 2502-03, 101 L.Ed.2d 420 (1988). In Frisby, the Court emphasized that the speech at issue was directed at individual residences so that persons became captive audiences inside their own homes. Id., 487 U.S. at 485, 108 S.Ct. at 2502. In this case, the Klan wishes to direct speech at the project as a whole. Although residents of the project could avoid the message inside their own homes, they would not be able to leave or enter the project without encountering the Klan's sign. The imposition of the Klan's message would affect the privacy of the residents in the housing project where they live. The State would act reasonably, then, in seeking to protect the residential privacy of the residents. The Supreme Court has also recognized that, when a nonpublic forum is involved, the government may limit speech to protect against its imposition upon a captive audience, even 9 outside of the home. Lehman v. City of Shaker Heights, 418 U.S. at 304, 94 S.Ct. at 2718. The State would not act unreasonably in disallowing the Klan's message to be imposed upon the captive audience of residents of the Vidor project. Some residents of the project might be willing recipients of the Klan's message. Cf. Frisby, 487 U.S. at 485, 108 S.Ct. at 2503. However, the State is not required to show that its restriction on speech would limit speech only as to captive and unwilling recipients of the Klan's message. The State faces no such requirement that its restraint on speech be narrowly tailored. United States v. Kokinda, 497 U.S. 720, 735, 110 S.Ct. 3115, 3124, 111 L.Ed.2d 571 (1990). The State's restriction on speech must be reasonable, but it need not be the most reasonable. Cornelius, 473 U.S. at 808, 105 S.Ct. at 3452. The State has provided adequate justification for the exclusion of the Klan from the Program under the circumstances of this case. The State's refusal to allow the Klan to adopt a section of highway near the public housing project in Vidor, Texas is reasonable for the above-stated reasons.