Court Opinion

ID: 9485757
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 11:28:49.297276+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:51:19.998077
License: Public Domain

KOZINSKI, Circuit Judge,
concurring:
Joe Religious Speaker comes to the City of San Diego and asks for a permit to put on a display in Balboa Park exalting the power of Zon.
“Sorry,” say the City Fathers and Mothers.
“Why not?” he asks. “Isn’t Balboa Park sort of a Hyde Park West where anybody is free to say whatever he wants? In fact, didn’t I see a Ku Klux Klan poster, a Communist Manifesto display and an Atheists United banner there?”
“Well, yes,” they respond. “Anybody can put up anything he wants there- — except religious things. We’re afraid people will think the City is sponsoring religion.”
This is a conversation that should never happen. Religious speech is speech, entitled to exactly the same protection from government restriction as any other kind of speech — no more and no less. See Widmar v. Vincent, 454 U.S. 263, 269, 102 S.Ct. 269, 274, 70 L.Ed.2d 440 (1981) (“[Rjeligious worship and discussion ... are forms of speech and association protected by the First Amendment.”). The government has many good reasons for restricting racist speech, advocacy of Communism, pornography and various other kinds of speech that some might see as harmful. But the Free Speech Clause stands in the way. See, e.g., R.A.V. v. City of St. Paul, — U.S. -, 112 S.Ct. 2538, 120 L.Ed.2d 305 (1992); Yates v. United States, 354 U.S. 298, 318-19, 77 S.Ct. 1064, 1077, 1 L.Ed.2d 1356 (1957); American Booksellers Ass’n v. Hudnut, 771 F.2d 323 (7th Cir.1985), aff'd without opinion, 475 U.S. 1001, 106 S.Ct. 1172, 89 L.Ed.2d 291 (1986); Cohen v. California, 403 U.S. 15, 91 S.Ct. 1780, 29 L.Ed.2d 284 (1971); Collin v. Smith, 578 F.2d 1197 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, 439 U.S. 916, 99 S.Ct. 291, 58 L.Ed.2d 264 (1978). I can’t see how the fear that someone might — mistakenly—think the government is endorsing religious speech is a better justification for censorship than those rejected in these cases and countless others.
The Establishment Clause, as the name suggests, forbids only the establishment of religion, not the mere appearance of doing so. Many government actions are consistent with religiously-inspired values and can appear to some as endorsing religion. See, e.g., Bowen v. Kendrick, 487 U.S. 589, 605, 108 S.Ct. 2562, 2572, 101 L.Ed.2d 520 (1988) (challenging on establishment grounds governmental program promoting abstinence); Phelps v. Reagan, 812 F.2d 1293, 1294 (10th Cir.1987) (claim that appointment of an ambassador to the Vatican is establishment of religion). Appearances only support an Establishment Clause claim when the government is speaking — when, for instance the government puts up a créche or a Christmas tree.1 But no case, including the cases Judge Boochever mentions, see dissent at 804 n. 12, holds that appearances are relevant to private speech protected by the Free Speech Clause. The very case Judge Boochever relies on — County of Allegheny v. ACLU, 492 U.S. 573, 109 S.Ct. 3086, 106 L.Ed.2d 472 (1989) — makes this clear: “The Grand Staircase does not appear to be the kind of location in which all were free to place their displays.... In this respect, the créche here does not raise the kind of ‘public forum’ issue, cf. Widmar, presented by [a] private créche in [a] public park.” Id. at 600 n. 50, 109 S.Ct. at 3104 n. 50 (citations omitted).
A distinction between government and private speech is surely necessary — the government has no right to keep a citizen from, for instance, draping himself in the flag or donning an Uncle Sam suit and carrying a placard proclaiming “America is a Christian Nation.” It would not matter whether Uncle *791Sam was carrying his message on a public street, in a park or on the sidewalk in front of City Hall. If a permit is required for such an activity, it must be freely offered to the religious speaker on exactly the same terms as any other speaker, even if there is a risk that onlookers will think his speech is endorsed by the government.
The Establishment Clause prevents the government from treating religious speech more favorably than nonreligious speech. But both the Establishment and Free Speech Clauses prevent the government from treating religious speech less favorably. Because the district court found that the City of San Diego treated the Christmas Committee display just like any other type of speech, I join Judge O’Scannlain’s excellent opinion affirming the judgment below.

. When the government selectively adopts and promotes a private speaker's message, we treat the speech as the government's: "We turn next to the county’s créche display.” County of Allegheny v. ACLU, 492 U.S. 573, 598, 109 S.Ct. 3086, 3103, 106 L.Ed.2d 472 (1989) (emphasis added). The district court's findings here refute any suggestion that San Diego gave the Christmas Committee's display a preference over anyone else's.