Court Opinion

ID: 9494837
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 15:48:15.57848+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:56:39.353149
License: Public Domain

LEVAL, J.,
concurring:
As Judge Miner’s opinion correctly states, the City has not disputed in this litigation that City Hall Plaza should be treated as a public forum. Because the litigants on both sides have presented the issue on that basis, we and the district court appropriately treat City Hall Plaza as a public forum for purposes of this litigation. I write separately, however, to suggest that the City may be mistaken in making that concession. Since August 1998, City Hall Plaza has been closed to the public and has ceased to be a public forum. If the new administration of May- or Bloomberg, like its predecessor, believes that the safety of City Hall calls for the exclusion of the public and the prohibition of public demonstration in City Hall Plaza, in my view it may, without violating the First Amendment, make regulations that would so close the Plaza in order to achieve that safety objective.
The administration of Mayor Giuliani believed, in the face of repeated terrorist bombings of U.S. buildings, that the terrorist threat to City Hall justified the creation of a narrow protective buffer zone around the building. The City therefore adopted new guidelines excluding the public from the area immediately surrounding City Hall, including City Hall Plaza. Housing Works repeatedly brought litigation challenging the portions of the rules that restricted demonstration in the Plaza. In those cases, the district court repeatedly ruled in favor of Housing Works. The district judge who heard those challenges *483justified the decisions largely on the basis that the Plaza was a quintessential public forum, from which the City could not exclude demonstrations. In my view, the reasoning of those decisions is highly questionable.1
The Supreme Court in Burson v. Freeman, 504 U.S. 191, 196-97, 112 S.Ct. 1846, 119 L.Ed.2d 5 (1992), used the term “public forum” to characterize places “such as parks, streets, and sidewalks” which have “by long tradition or by government fiat been devoted to assembly and debate.” The Supreme Court has made clear that government’s power to exert control over public demonstrations at a public forum is narrowly circumscribed. Although the “public forum” label perfectly suited City Hall Plaza prior to August 1998, the fit then became dubious.
City Hall is the key building of New York City’s government. It contains the offices of the Mayor and the City Council. The Plaza is a long narrow strip, approximately 30 yards wide, which separates the main entrance of City Hall on its south side from City Hall Park. The Plaza abuts against the steps constituting the main entrance to City Hall and its south wall, including the first floor offices of the May- or and the City Council.
Prior to 1998, the public had free access to the Plaza, as well as to the paths on the east, west, and north sides of City Hall. The Plaza and the steps of City Hall became a favored place for public demonstrations. During the 1990s, a series of terrorist attacks on United States interests throughout the world gave rise to a new concern for the security of government buildings.2 After the terrorist bombing of the World Trade Center in 1998, the City adopted a new policy limiting the size of press conferences on the City Hall steps and the immediate vicinity to 25 persons. Housing Works sued to enjoin the enforcement of that restriction. The district court ruled in favor of Housing Works, granting a preliminary injunction. See Housing Works, Inc. v. Safir, 1998 WL 409701 (S.D.N.Y. July 21, 1998) (“Housing Works /”). The court classified the Plaza as belonging in the category of “[sjtreets and parks [that] ‘have immemorially been held in trust for the use of the public and, time out of mind, have been used for purposes of assembly, communicating thoughts between citizens, and discussing public questions.’ ” Id. at *2, quoting Hague v. Comm. for Indus. Org., 307 U.S. 496, 515, 59 S.Ct. 954, 83 L.Ed. 1423 (1939). The district court concluded, citing Burson, 504 U.S. at 195, 112 S.Ct. 1846, that press conferences given at such places are “entitled to the highest level of constitutional protection.” I do not question the appropriateness of the classification at that time, as the public still enjoyed free access to the Plaza. Finding that the City had permitted other entities to conduct press conferences with crowds exceeding 25, the district court ruled that the restriction to 25 persons was unnecessary and was being enforced on a viewpoint-biased basis.
In August 1998 terrorists bombed two United States embassies in Africa. The City had received intelligence information to the effect that City Hall might be targeted for a terrorist attack. The City *484undertook a thorough reassessment of the security of City Hall. Adopting a program named Operation Alert Status Bravo, the City established a secure perimeter surrounding City Hall from which the public ■was excluded. Concrete barriers were set up surrounding City Hall Plaza and the walking paths around City Hall. Security posts were established at entry points; the public was no longer allowed to enter into the Plaza or approach City Hall, excepting persons who could “demonstrate that they are employed, attending an event or have business in City Hall.” See Housing Works v. Safir, 1998 WL 823614, at *1 n. 1 (S.D.N.Y. Nov.25, 1998) (“Housing Works II”).
On November 10, 1998, the City memorialized the Operation Bravo policy governing use of the Plaza in a set of guidelines prepared by the New York City Police Department. The November 10, 1998 guidelines provided:
Recent world events and the local detention and indictment of suspects involved in the terrorist bombing attacks on United States installations abroad have created an immediate and increased threat of attack against government officials and buildings located in New York City, as well as citizens who work in or visit these locations. Pursuant to section 435(a) of the City Charter, to protect the rights of persons and property, and guard the public health and safety, sensitive locations are being provided with enhanced security for the duration of the increased risk set forth above.
Until further notice, the perimeters of sensitive locations may be secured by barricade in order to establish protective zones. Persons having business at sensitive locations may be asked to present identification and state the nature of their business in order to enter protective zones. Only those confirmed as having business may be admitted into these protective zones....
Public gatherings, including but not limited to speeches, press conferences and like events, whether of an official or unofficial nature, will not be permitted .... Government officials, members of the press and private persons or groups who wish to hold public gatherings, including but not limited to speeches, press conferences and like events (regardless of the sponsors or speakers) will be directed to such alternative locations, to the extent feasible, as will permit the event to occur within proximity of the protective zones. Alternative locations may include designated areas within nearby parks and other public spaces.
Memorandum from Inspector Daniel J. Oates to Police Commissioner, Guidelines for Enhanced Security Measures at Sensitive Locations, Nov. 10, 1998. (The “November 10, 1998, Guidelines.”) (emphasis added)
Notwithstanding the exclusion of other demonstrators, the policy statement went on to provide that the City might itself use City Hall Plaza for unusual ceremonial occasions “of extraordinary public interest ... of major civic and City-wide importance” “uniquely appropriate to City Hall,” during which “the regular business of City Hall may be suspended;” as examples of such occasions, the policy statement listed “inaugurations, events honoring: national military triumphs, space exploration, national or world leaders, or local World Championship teams.” Admission to such an event would be restricted to ticket holders, and the holding of such events was subject to a proviso that the Police Commissioner must determine that adequate security can be provided.3 Housing Works II, 1998 WL 823614, at *2.
*485In the meantime, on October 23,1998, in accordance with this exception for special City-sponsored events, the City hosted a reception in the Plaza for the World Champion New York Yankees, which was attended by 5000-6000 persons holding tickets issued by the Police Commissioner. During November 1998, the City also hosted a similar reception in the Plaza celebrating Senator-Astronaut John Glenn’s return trip to outer space. For both events, the City adopted stringent security measures, including the stationing of numerous uniformed and plainclothes officers, positioning officers at the tops of nearby buildings, bomb-sniffing dogs to sweep the area before the events, closure of the City Hall building, and magnetometer searches of every attendee.
On November 4, 1998, Housing Works notified the Corporation Counsel of its intent to hold a press conference on the steps of City Hall; when its request was denied, it sought a preliminary injunction. The district court ruled in favor of Housing Works. It explained that the “[u]se of the streets and public places has, from ancient times, been a part of the privileges” of citizenry (quoting Hague, 307 U.S. at 515, 59 S.Ct. 954) and for this reason “events on the steps of City Hall and in the [PJlaza are afforded heightened First Amendment protection.” Housing Works, Inc. v. Safir, 1998 WL 823614, at *3 (S.D.N.Y. Nov.25, 1998) CHousing Works II). On the basis of the fact that a large crowd had been admitted for the City’s celebration of the New York Yankees’ World Series victory, the court rejected the City’s contention that security concerns justified the closing of the Plaza. The court added the curious observation that “if any governmental entity possesses a substantial interest in protecting [City Hall] against the threat of terrorist attacks, it is the United States,” rather than the City of New York because “it was the federal government’s embassies that were bombed.” Housing Works II, 1998 WL 823614, at *5. The court further supported its ruling by the proposition that allowing the City to close the Plaza to demonstrators like Housing Works while permitting it to sponsor a public celebration of the New York Yankees would “unconstitutionally vest[ ] undue discretion in government officials so as to create the possibility of content-based discrimination.” Id. at *6.
In response to the court’s ruling, the City amended its policy governing access to the City Hall Plaza area, softening some of the restrictions. The amendments, announced on February 23, 1999, provided, inter alia, that no more than 50 persons were permitted to demonstrate in the part of the Plaza designated as the “Municipal Security Section.” Housing Works, Inc. v. Safir, 101 F.Supp.2d 163, 166(S.D.N.Y.2000) (Housing Works III) (describing City’s amendment). The new restrictions did not apply to “public ceremonies and commemorations, inaugurations, award ceremonies, celebrations, festivals and similar events which have traditionally been organized or sponsored by the City of New York.” Id.
*486After passing a further temporary amendment in April 1999, see Housing Works III, 101 F.Supp.2d at 166, in January 2000 the City issued what were designated as the Final Rules. The Final Rules required that persons seeking to engage in expressive conduct in the Plaza must apply to the NYPD. If permitted, such activity was limited to two hours duration and a maximum of 50 participants on the steps, or 150 people in the Plaza away from the steps. These rules again exempted events sponsored by the City.
Housing Works then sought a permanent injunction barring enforcement of the Final Rules against it. The district court ruled in its favor. See Housing Works, Inc. v. Safir, 101 F.Supp.2d 163 (S.D.N.Y.2000) (Housing Works III). The court once again reasoned that “[t]he steps and plaza of City Hall are by their very nature, quintessential public forums ... places which by long tradition or by government fiat have been devoted to assembly and debate, such as parks, streets, and sidewalks.” Id. at 167 (quoting Burson, 504 U.S. at 196, 112 S.Ct. 1846, Perry Educ. Ass’n v. Perry Local Educators’ Ass’n, 460 U.S. 37, 45, 103 S.Ct. 948, 74 L.Ed.2d 794 (1983)). Because the City government itself had used the Plaza and the City Hall steps for large celebratory events, the court concluded that the City’s policy limiting the size and location of demonstrations by independent organizations such as Housing Works gave the City government impermissible discretion over the content or viewpoint of public speech delivered at that quintessentially public forum. Id. at 167-171. The court also expressed the view that Housing Works’ agenda to combat the worldwide epidemic of AIDS is at least as “inherently a governmental activity and worthy of City Hall sponsorship” as a celebration of the New York Yankees’ victory. Id. at 169.
In April 2000, the City adopted the present rules which are described in the majority’s opinion. These are designated as “Rules for Press Conferences, Demonstrations and Similar Activities in the Immediate Vicinity of City Hall.” They require that demonstrating organizations apply to the Police Department for permits for demonstrations; the rules limit the number of persons to 300 and the duration to three hours for covered activities. Once again they exclude City sponsored events such as “(i) inaugurations, (ii) award ceremonies for city employees; and (iii) ceremonies held in connection with a City-sponsored ticker-tape parade.” See 55 R.C.N.Y. § 10-01, et seq.
In summary, under the provisions of Operation Bravo, as set forth in the November 10, 1998, Guidelines, the Plaza has been generally closed to the public since August 1998. Demonstrative activity, at first prohibited outright, has, in response to the district court’s injunctions, been allowed under restrictions designed to accommodate the district court’s rulings. Throughout this period, special events conducted by the City itself were exempted from the prohibitions and restrictions.
The present suit challenging the City’s enforcement of its policy restricting sound amplification in the Plaza was brought against this background of district court rulings. The district court relied on the City’s concession, as well as on the conclusion reached by another district judge in the earlier Housing Works litigation, for the proposition that City Hall Plaza is “a quintessential public forum.” In deciding that the City’s right to use sound amplification at the events the City sponsors, while prohibiting such amplification at the demonstrations of others, gives the City impermissible discretion to discriminate on the basis of content and viewpoint, the district court mirrored the reasoning of *487Housing Works II and Housing Works III.
In my view, this series of district court decisions rested on flawed reasoning. First, in continuing to treat City Hall Plaza as belonging, together with the City’s streets, parks, and sidewalks, in the category of “quintessential public forum,” the court did not give appropriate recognition to the fact that since 1998 the Plaza has been closed to the public. Second, I can see no good reason for the district court’s refusal in Housing Works II and Housing Works III to credit the City’s safety and security-based reasons for excluding the public from a narrow perimeter surrounding the head office of the City’s government. Third, in stating that the guidelines gave the City excessive discretion to allow some, and disallow other, would-be demonstrators, the decisions failed to distinguish appropriately between a government’s reservation of its own working space for its own use, and its exercise of favoritism in making the location available to some, but not others, to disseminate their views. A government’s use of its own working space for its own demonstrative events without opening its space to all would-be demonstrators is a very different thing from the pernicious, impermissible practice of making a public space available to some but not to others depending on the demonstrators’ viewpoints. I discuss these issues in turn.
First, in my view, in 1998 the Plaza ceased to be a public forum. It is true without question that prior to the adoption of the Bravo guidelines, City Hall Plaza was a quintessential public forum. It was open to the public and had been historically used as a place for public expression of views, including opposition to policies of the City government. In August 1998, however, in response to very serious threats to security, the City fenced off the Plaza, as part of a small, secure perimeter around City Hall, and excluded the public from entry. For the last four years, the Plaza has been generally closed to the public. Being closed to the public, it has ceased to share the public character of parks, streets, and sidewalks. Demonstrations were also prohibited. To the extent that public demonstrations are now permitted under restrictions, it appears this is only because the City yielded to the district court’s rulings enjoining its efforts to exclude demonstrations. Given this history, it seems to me highly questionable whether the Plaza continues to have the attributes of a public forum, with the legal consequences that classification entails.
The district court perhaps assumed that once a location becomes devoted to public assembly and debate, it may not be withdrawn from public use. I see no reason why this should be so, at least when the withdrawal is done for proper and important reasons, and does not improperly curtail the public’s opportunity to demonstrate and to protest the government’s actions. Streets and sidewalks that are adjacent to polling places, for example, ordinarily qualify as quintessential public fora but cease to be so at election time. See Burson, 504 U.S. at 216, 112 S.Ct. 1846 (Scalia, /., concurring) (“ ‘Streets and sidewalks’ are not public forums in all places, and the long usage of our people demonstrates that the portions of streets and sidewalks adjacent to polling places are not public forums at all times either.”) (quoting Greer v. Spock, 424 U.S. 828, 96 S.Ct. 1211, 47 L.Ed.2d 505 (1976)). To be sure, the First Amendment requires that any withdrawal of a public forum be done with circumspection, only for good reason, and not with a view to suppressing dissent or influencing the content of public debate. But I see no reason to doubt that well-merited concern for the safety of the seat of government is an acceptable reason for *488creating a narrow, secure buffer zone around it from which public demonstrations are excluded.
Even without the benefit of hindsight illuminated by the events of September 11, 2001, the barring of public access to the Plaza was well justified. In light of the numerous terrorist bombings of government buildings and prominent New York buildings that occurred in the 1990s and the receipt of intelligence to the effect that City Hall was a possible target, New York’s concern for the security of City Hall was well founded. The City did no more than has been done around many U.S. governmental buildings, including this courthouse. There is no credible suggestion that the City was disingenuous in its citation of security concerns, or that the restriction was intended to suppress dissent, or that it left demonstrators without suitable locations to stage effective demonstrations protesting City policies.
I believe, furthermore, that the district court discredited the City’s security objectives for invalid reasons. The court’s main basis for doubting the bona fides of the City’s claim of security concerns was that the City had hosted large events in the Plaza for the Yankees and for Senator Glenn. Housing Works II, 1998 WL 823614, at **6-7. The district court’s reasoning is puzzling. First, the Plaza was not opened to the public on these occasions. Although the number of persons in attendance was large, attendance was limited to persons holding tickets issued by the Police Commissioner, and substantial security precautions were taken. Id4 Second, even if the admission of a crowd to the Plaza on short notice on a rare occasion involves some increased vulnerability, that increased risk is not nearly as great as would result from opening the Plaza all the time to all who would demonstrate there. The City’s hosting of these two events in the Plaza does not reasonably cast a doubt on the bona fides of the City’s claims that the security of City Hall would be compromised by opening the Plaza to daily use by all who would demonstrate there. The district court’s additional reason — that the safety of City Hall was more properly the concern of the federal government than the City government, because “it was the federal government’s embassies that were bombed,” id. at *5 — seems to me a non sequitur. I know no reason to expect the federal government will provide protection to New York City’s governmental buildings. The federal government’s failure to provide security to New York’s City Hall does not justify the conclusion that there is no need for security, as the district court seemed to reason.
Finally, the district court observed that the City’s use of the Plaza for rallies celebrating the New York Yankees’ victory and Senator Glenn’s return voyage to outer space, while denying use of the Plaza to Housing Works and other applicants, vests undue discretion in City officials because “such discretion has the potential for becoming a means of supporting a particular point of view.” Housing Works II, 1998 WL 823614, at *6 (quotation marks omitted). In Housing Works III, the court also questioned whether celebrating the Yankee World Series victory was as “worthy of City Hall sponsorship” as Housing Works’ sponsorship of the fight against AIDS. 101 F.Supp.2d at 169.
*489I believe this reasoning is flawed in several respects. As to the district court’s evaluation of the relative worth of Housing Works’ AIDS message, as compared with celebration of the Yankees’ World Series victory, it is not properly a court’s function to assess which message is more worthy of public dissemination. A court’s function in such cases is simply to determine whether the City’s actions violated the requirements of the Constitution. As to the district court’s notion that the City’s exclusion of Housing Works’ demonstration, while retaining the right to hold its own celebratory demonstrations in the Plaza, gives the City impermissible discretion to allow the airing of favored messages while disallowing disfavored ones, it fails to appreciate an important distinction.
Without doubt the First Amendment does not countenance government asserting the right to pick and choose which entity may be permitted to demonstrate or march in a public space. The Supreme Court has made clear that government may not operate under vague standards that would allow it to grant demonstration permits to those who support the government’s policies, while denying permits to its critics. See, e.g., Forsyth County v. Nationalist Movement, 505 U.S. 123, 130, 112 S.Ct. 2395, 120 L.Ed.2d 101 (1992); Shuttlesworth v. City of Birmingham, 394 U.S. 147, 153, 89 S.Ct. 935, 22 L.Ed.2d 162 (1969). Government’s proper control over public demonstration is limited to reasonable and clear limitations as to time and manner that cannot be manipulated so as to favor demonstrations promulgating a favored message, while excluding those proclaiming a disfavored message. It does not follow, however, that when government conducts its own demonstration in its own working space, it is then under obligation to make its working space available to others who would argue contrary positions, much less to all others regardless of their message.
The district court treated the problem as if the City had made the Plaza available to the New York Yankees for the Yankees’ public demonstration, while denying like access to Housing Works. But that was an inaccurate perception of the events. What the City did was to hold its own celebration of the Yankees in its own working space. I see no reason why conducting its own celebration of the Yankees victory in its own working space should obligate the City to make that space available to others who might wish to demonstrate there.
It is not unusual, for example, for a newly-elected Mayor to hold a reception open to the public at the seat of government celebrating her installation in office. By so opening the Mayor’s office to the public to celebrate her inauguration, the Mayor does not lose the power to exclude the public on the other days of the year. And if the Mayor gives a press conference in her office advocating one of her programs, she is not thereby obligated to make her office available to those who would give press conferences opposing her program, much less make her office available to anyone who would demonstrate there on any issue. Once the Plaza was closed to the public in 1998 and became part of the nonpublic working space of the City Hall complex, the same principles governed access to the Plaza.
I add these remarks to Judge Miner’s well-reasoned decision out of concern for the future. Should Mayor Bloomberg’s administration determine that concern for the safety of City Hall appropriately calls for closing the Plaza to public demonstrations, in my view it should not be deterred by this series of district court decisions from making regulations to accomplish that objective. The City should have the power to protect the safety of City Hall by closing the Plaza, notwithstanding that the *490City may reserve the right to use the Plaza for its own celebratory events.

. The rulings were not appealed or failed to produce an authoritative ruling on appeal with respect to the "public forum” issue.

. Attacks against United States interests in the 1990s included: 1) the World Trade Center bombing on February 26, 1993; 2) the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995; 3) the bombing of U.S. military headquarters in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on November 13, 1995; 4) the bombing of Khobar Towers in Dharan, Saudi Arabia on June 25, 1996; and 5) the bombings of American embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Dares Salaam, Tanzania on August 7, 1998.

. .The Police Commissioner may authorize the use by the City of the City Hall plaza and step *485areas for ceremonial occasions (1) of extraordinary public interest, (2) which are uniquely appropriate to City Hall, (3) during which the regular business of City Hall may be suspended or curtailed, and City Hall otherwise closed to the general public, (4) which are unique, non-annual events of major civic and City-wide importance (e.g., inaugurations and events honoring: national military triumphs, space exploration, extraordinary national or world leaders, or local World Championship teams), and (5) which require a ticket for entry, provided the Police Commissioner or his designee determines that adequate provisions for security can be made in light of the extraordinary security concerns outlined above. November 10, 1998 Guidelines, (emphasis added)

. The district court observed that the "ticket requirement did not meaningfully promote security since individuals were allowed access ... without showing identification.” Housing Works II, 1998 WL 823614, at *6. The fact that the district court was able to discern a flaw in the security precautions adopted by the City to protect against terrorism does not seem to me an adequate reason to discredit the bona fides or validity of the City’s concern for security.