Court Opinion

ID: 9468892
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 02:26:06.712684+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:41:06.046744
License: Public Domain

COLEMAN, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
I believe that our prior opinion in this case, which was expressly limited to its facts, correctly stated the law applicable to those facts. Therefore, I would not extend the decision beyond the actual issue in the case.
More particularly, in the absence of a Supreme Court decision to the contrary, I would hold that a hospital — designed, constructed, and operated for the sole purpose of treating human ills — is not a public forum. The overriding function of such a unique institution should not be subjected to a room to room, place by place, analysis for the promulgation of some kind of a limited rule as to those particular areas. Overworked, understaffed personnel of hospitals should not have their mission diverted by such stumbling blocks. No real First Amendment right is promoted by allowing it. The privacy of and a reasonably tranquil atmosphere for sick people, and the *634efforts to help them if not always to cure them, ought not to be hampered by the necessity for specially tailored handling, which may survive the hair splitting analysis fostered by litigation. Let all propagan-dizers, of whatever purpose or ilk, stand clear of the last refuge of the sick.
I respectfully dissent.