Opinion ID: 786183
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: the district court properly dismissed perez's first amendment claim

Text: 15 Perez argued before the District Court that the imposition of the fine under section 4022.13 was an unconstitutional restriction on free speech. As articulated in his briefs (and advanced at oral argument), Perez's First Amendment arguments are wholly focused on the District Court's public-employee analysis. Perez has not addressed the government's contention, which we find persuasive, that the Stewards' meeting was a nonpublic forum and that the restriction on Perez's speech was reasonable and viewpoint neutral. 16
17 Because the District Court relied principally on its public-employee analogy (and the test set forth in Pickering ) in granting summary judgment to defendants, we think it important to clarify at the outset of our analysis that we are affirming the District Court decision on other grounds. The question of whether a state-licensee — in this case, a horse owner licensed by New York State — is properly analogized to a public employee for First Amendment purposes, see Perez, 248 F.Supp.2d at 197, is one that has not yet been resolved in this Circuit. While we recognize that other courts have treated certain state licensees as public employees in the First Amendment context, see, e.g., Copsey v. Swearingen, 36 F.3d 1336, 1343-44 (5th Cir.1994) (applying Pickering to First Amendment claims of state-licensed vendor); Havekost v. United States Dep't of the Navy, 925 F.2d 316, 318-20 (9th Cir.1991) (analogizing state-licensed commissary bagger to public employee); cf. LeRoy v. Illinois Racing Bd., No. 89 C 3433, 1990 WL 7072, at  (N.D. Ill. Jan 18, 1990) (observing that plaintiff's status as a licensed horseman may more nearly place him [in] the category applicable to public employees than in the category of purely private citizens), we find it unnecessary to reach this complicated issue — which would implicate a host of state licensees in other industries — where, as here, there is a more straightforward and well-settled basis for dismissing Perez's First Amendment claim. 18
19 For First Amendment purposes, speech restrictions imposed on government-owned property are analyzed under a `forum-based' approach that divides government property into three categories based on the physical characteristics of the forum in question, the nature of its use (including its location and purpose), and the governmental intent in constructing the space. Hotel Employees & Rest. Employees Union, Local 100 of New York, N.Y. & Vicinity v. City of New York Dep't of Parks & Recreation, 311 F.3d 534, 544, 546-47 (2d Cir.2002) (quoting Int'l Soc'y for Krishna Consciousness, Inc. v. Lee, 505 U.S. 672, 678, 112 S.Ct. 2701, 120 L.Ed.2d 541 (1992)); Gen. Media Communications, Inc. v. Cohen, 131 F.3d 273, 279 (2d Cir.1997), cert. denied, 524 U.S. 951, 118 S.Ct. 2367, 141 L.Ed.2d 736 (1998). 20 The first two types of fora are the traditional public forum, e.g., streets, sidewalks, parks, and other places which have traditionally been available for public expression and the free exchange of ideas, and the designated public forum, which is a nonpublic forum that has been opened by the government for all types of expressive activity. Hotel Employees, 311 F.3d at 544-45 (citations and internal quotation marks omitted). Most regulations of speech in both traditional public fora and designated public fora are subjected to the highest scrutiny — such restrictions are permissible only if `narrowly drawn to achieve a compelling [governmental] interest.'  Gen. Media, 131 F.3d at 278 (alteration in original) (quoting Lee, 505 U.S. at 678, 112 S.Ct. 2701). 21 All remaining public property falls into the third category of nonpublic fora, which is the category of most relevance to this case. A nonpublic forum is a property that the government has not opened for expressive activity by members of the public. Hotel Employees, 311 F.3d at 546 (including as examples of nonpublic fora, airport terminals, military bases and restricted access military stores, jailhouse grounds, and the Meadowlands Sports Complex) (citations omitted). In a nonpublic forum, an individual's freedom of speech is at its nadir. Fighting Finest, Inc. v. Bratton, 95 F.3d 224, 229 (2d Cir.1996). Restrictions on speech in nonpublic fora are subject only to the requirements of reasonableness and viewpoint neutrality. Hotel Employees, 311 F.3d at 546 (citing Cornelius v. NAACP Legal Def. & Educ. Fund, Inc., 473 U.S. 788, 800, 105 S.Ct. 3439, 87 L.Ed.2d 567 (1985)). 22 Nowhere in Perez's briefs does he contest the assertion that the Stewards' meeting was a nonpublic forum, despite the fact that it was (i) the basis for the administrative ruling against him; (ii) noted as an alternative basis for the District Court's ruling, Perez, 248 F.Supp.2d at 197 n. 11; and (iii) the principal argument in the defendants' appellate brief. In fact, in his reply brief, Perez asserts that it is not the place where he spoke that matters, and at oral argument, we understood him to acknowledge that the Stewards' meeting was not a public forum. Nevertheless, in the interest of completeness, we outline briefly why the Stewards' meeting is properly viewed as a nonpublic forum. 23 The meeting at issue was held in the private office of Steward David Hicks in a nonpublic area of the Saratoga racetrack, a government-controlled horse racing facility. The meeting had a narrow and limited purpose: to investigate the specific complaints made by Perez and Lakow. Attendance at this closed-door tribunal was limited — there is no suggestion that there was general access to the meeting. See Arkansas Educ. Television Comm'n v. Forbes, 523 U.S. 666, 678-79, 118 S.Ct. 1633, 140 L.Ed.2d 875 (1998) (To create a [designated public] forum..., the government must intend to make the property `generally available' to a class of speakers.... A designated public forum is not created when the government allows selective access for individual speakers rather than general access for a class of speakers.) (citations omitted). Thus, consideration of the relevant factors confirms that the Stewards' meeting was a nonpublic forum. The State has broad latitude to regulate and restrict speech in a nonpublic forum, provided that the restrictions are reasonably related to maintaining order in the environment, and the restrictions are not based on the viewpoint expressed by the speaker. Hotel Employees, 311 F.3d at 554. We now turn attention to whether the Racing Board's restrictions on Perez's speech meet these criteria. 24
25 The Supreme Court has admonished that a restriction in a nonpublic forum need only be reasonable; it does not have to be the most or the only reasonable limitation. Cornelius, 473 U.S. at 808. The reasonableness of a restriction is assessed in the light of the purpose of the forum and all the surrounding circumstances. Id. at 809, 105 S.Ct. 3439. [I]n examining the compatibility between the prohibited speech and the particular forum, we ask whether the restrictions on speech are reasonably related to maintaining the environment that the government has deliberately created. Hotel Employees, 311 F.3d at 554 (citation and internal quotation marks omitted). 26 In the instant case, the purpose of the Stewards' meeting was to hear Perez's complaint that Lakow had fixed races by manipulating the number of entries to favor certain owners and to consider Lakow's response and counter-complaint about Perez's prior conduct. The Racing Board's restrictions on Perez's speech were reasonably related to promoting the objective of the session convened — to investigate allegations of impropriety affecting the integrity of the race meeting — and to maintaining the professional atmosphere of the office. Perez's conduct and speech were abusive and disruptive to the tribunal. 4 He prevented the Stewards from performing their legitimate investigative function and he disturbed employees working in the area. When the Stewards' efforts to reason with Perez and to calm him down failed, they properly resorted to the imposition of the fine to limit the disruption he was causing. 27 Furthermore, despite his half-hearted arguments to the contrary, it is clear from the facts of this case that Perez was not penalized for expressing his views about the Racing Secretary. We agree with the District Court, see Perez, 248 F.Supp.2d at 197, that the record of what transpired at the Board's meeting reveals that Perez was fined because his extremely disruptive behavior prevented the Stewards from fully investigating his grievance against Lakow. The Board did not penalize Perez over a disagreement with his viewpoint, but rather because the abusive manner in which he expressed that viewpoint impeded the Stewards' function and thus, was detrimental to the best interests of racing. Indeed, as the District Court observed, Perez's behavior was so outrageous that the Board was denied the opportunity even to consider his viewpoint. Perez, 248 F.Supp.2d at 197. 28 We find that the Stewards' meeting was a nonpublic forum and that the restriction of Perez's speech at that meeting was both viewpoint neutral and reasonable in relation to the forum's function. As such, the application of section 4022.13 in this case was not an impermissible restriction of Perez's speech.