Court Opinion

ID: 9481223
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 08:11:42.444306+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:48:09.933680
License: Public Domain

RALPH B. GUY, Jr., Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
In dissenting, I do not fault the court’s scholarship but, rather, part company with the majority on the issue of our proper role in considering an emergency stay motion. After disclaiming any intent to decide the merits of this case, the court, in my opinion, has done just that. In discussing the City’s “likelihood of success on the merits,” the court has gone far beyond what is necessary to decide this motion.
Unlike the majority, I believe the City has made the necessary showing on the merits when that prong of the four-factor emergency stay test is properly considered, as it must be, in conjunction with the other three factors. The City does not need to convince the court it is right. The City’s argument that the “public forum” doctrine does not give members of the public an unfettered right to place tangible objects in a public square and leave them there unattended has merit. I disagree with the majority contention that the City has somehow limited itself to arguing only about the placement of a religious symbol. A religious symbol is what was involved, so that is what was discussed. But the legal principle invoked transcends any such limitation. This is not your typical “Christmas creche” case. The reliance by the district court on the “public forum” doctrine means that any group or individual can now claim the right to express any view protected by the first amendment, not just by making a speech or holding a demonstration, but by erecting some tangible symbol or placing some physical object in Fountain Square and leaving it there unattended. At a minimum, the City has made a “strong showing” that the law is less than fully developed on the specific point at issue here.
On the issue of irreparable injury, I come down on the side of the City. The plaintiff group has been trying for at least three years to erect a menorah in Fountain Square. Notwithstanding its knowledge that the City intended to deny permission, it waited to file suit until the time remaining became very short, resulting in the courts having to deal with these important and difficult issues in an unduly limited period of time. The only injury to be suffered by the plaintiffs is that, as in previous years, they will not be allowed to have a menorah in Fountain Square this year during the Chanukah holiday. The City, on the other hand, is left highly uncertain as to its continued ability to use its longstanding permit system to regulate use of a major public facility. Other groups may ask for the same emergency “display rights” afforded to the plaintiffs here. I can envision a chaotic situation arising, as *464anyone from the “skin heads” to the Rosi-crucians demand the right to erect their particular talisman in Fountain Square with or without the City’s permission.
As I have intimated, I do not see the plaintiff group as being substantially injured by the issuance of a stay. I do not make light of the important free speech issues involved but, rather, suggest that a regular panel of this court will consider these questions and issue a definitive opinion that will provide guidance for the future, subject, of course, to further controlling pronouncements from the Supreme Court. There is no need for this panel to try to accomplish this difficult task in such a short period of time.
As for public interest, it lies in the courts striking a proper balance between the first amendment’s guarantee of free speech and the City’s right to assert reasonable control over publicly owned property. It is impossible to evaluate these issues properly against the backdrop of a truncated record and under the time constraints imposed in resolving an emergency motion.
Very recently, this same panel addressed a related issue in the case of Americans United for Separation of Church and State v. City of Grand Rapids, 922 F.2d 303 (6th Cir.1990). There, we stayed a district court order that had enjoined the City from allowing a menorah to be erected in a public square in Grand Rapids. Although there are factual similarities between the two cases, their differences are more significant than their similarities. In the Grand Rapids case, the City had allowed the menorah for the six previous years and had granted permission for its erection again this year. Thus, our stay in the Grand Rapids case preserved the historical status quo. I feel we should do the same here since this is an emergency motion.
Also in the Grand Rapids case, we made it clear that the effect of our stay was to allow the City to issue the permit, not require it to do so. The erection of structures in a public square against the wishes of a city has ramifications ranging from tort liability to possible breaches of the public peace. As I construe an emergency motion of this nature, the issue does not involve free speech or the establishment clause so much as it does who should control what structures can be erected in Fountain Square for the next three to four months while this court decides the case on the merits. I think that control should go to the entity that has the responsibility and the liability for what happens in Fountain Square in the interim.
I would grant the emergency stay motion.