Alan, I don't like the Court's non-public forum doctrine--I would be a lot
quicker than is the Court to find a designated public forum--but so long as the
policy avoids viewpoint discrimination and is reasonable in light of the
purpose of the forum, it can be used to exclude speakers and
I have a question for Alan. Suppose a county courthouse allows a private group,
say the NAACP, preferential access to put up a display celebrating the life of
MLK. Must the county now allow the Satanist group access to this non-public
forum to put up a display celebrating the life of Satan?
Of course. If it is Govt speech, no public forum issue. If the display touches
on religion, it may or may not violate the EC. The Court has come down on both
sides of the EC issue in passive display cases, and the current personnel on
the Court may be on the side of permitting most passive
