Orlando is managed by the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority, which does not
make decisions on allocating space in the terminals. It's the airlines that
make those decisions, and the money spent is not from taxes, but comes
exclusively from airline and concession rentals (generally the concession
rentals offset the high costs of the airlines; still no tax money involved).
Not sure how non-tax money gets put into a pool labeled "government." I can
tell you terminals like O'Hare probably couldn't get built were a government
making the decisions -- just as Grand Central Station was built with private
money (is it government now?).
A better analogy might be the great sports stadia, which have bonds nominally
issued by a municipality, but generally with no tax contributions; and the
management of the stadium is left to a semi-governmental entity, or to the
biggest lease holder (like Cowboy Stadium -- AT&T Stadium -- in Arlington,
Texas).
Does government have a say in whether the New York Giants gather for prayer at
midfield before or after a game?
It's not a First Amendment-free zone, but it's not the same as government
speech, nor the same as government accommodation of speech or religion.
Ed Darrell
Dallas
From: "Volokh, Eugene" <[email protected]>
To: Law & Religion issues for Law Academics <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, October 28, 2015 7:53 PM
Subject: RE: Muslim-focused "reflection room" in airport
#yiv6916772168 #yiv6916772168 -- _filtered #yiv6916772168
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{}#yiv6916772168 I much appreciate the background on how
airports make their money, but I don’t think this matters for Establishment
Clause purposes, so long as the decisions are made by a government entity,
using money at the disposal of government entity (whether it comes from taxes
or user fees). The Orlando airport is managed by a government entity, the
Greater Orlando Aviation Authority, http://www.orlandoairports.net/about.htm,
and as best I can tell from the stories, it’s making the decision to create the
reflection room, using money that is in its fisc. I don’t think that’s any
different from, say, a public university using student fees to build such a
room – perhaps permissible, but very far removed from “religious verse
citations listed on the soft-drink cups at In-n-Out Burgers.”
Eugene
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]]On Behalf Of Ed Darrell
Sent: Wednesday, October 28, 2015 2:31 PM
To: Alan E Brownstein; Law & Religion issues for Law Academics
Subject: Re: Muslim-focused "reflection room" in airport Alan, there's a
difference between public space and the space people pay rent on. Every chapel
I know of falls into the private area (there may be others); the questions tend
to revolve around whether the public spaces of terminals are truly public like
a public street. At O'Hare we had secular war over whether the Chicago
newspapers could put boxes up to sell newspapers outside the newsstands
(airline issue was that newsstands pay very high rents, newspapers argued they
had a First Amendment right to sell anywhere without paying rent . . .). Many
of those issues fell away after the first magnetometers went in, and I suspect
the rest went away after 9/11 and the advent of TSA. Some airports
successfully put up boxes from which the Hare Krishnas could sing, dance, and
ask for converts. I am unaware that any other faiths ever used the boxes.
I'm working from memory, but my recollection is that the airlines agreed to put
up $200,000 to build and furnish a couple of chapels, nominally under the
direction of a Catholic priest who somehow wangled O'Hare as his area of
influence. One of the questions the airlines had was whether those chapels
would be open to all faiths, and Father Jamnicky assured us they would be.
When I checked later that's what I found.
Generally it's the airport committee of airlines that sets those policies.
Most major airports have a "board" to oversee the administration of the airport
apart from the terminals and runways, and to coordinate activities, and those
boards, made up of people from the community (as at DFW, and MCO if I read that
news article correctly). The community boards generally rubber stamp decisions
of the airport committee, if they do anything at all.
When the suing starts, it's the airlines that bear the burden of costs,
usually. Sometimes those suits are done with coordination of the local
municipality, but the airlines pay the lawyers and are named in the suits.
If Emirates Air has a sizable presence, they may have some influence; I think
most airports would go out of their way to accommodate reasonable requests of
airlines who pay massive landing fees.
All commercial airports in the U.S. are built with bond money, the bonds issued
on guarantee the airlines will be paying rents for a long time -- most of the
agreements are 30-years to start out. European airports are usually
nationally-managed. Canada has a little greater control on the airport, but
the structure is much the same as the U.S.
Airlines are generally too cheap to put up a facility for just one faith.
Would it be constitutional? Probably, but it makes little commercial sense
because of the possibility of offense to someone. Airlines like to keep
customers happy and coming back often. In Orlando (MCO), this seems pretty
clearly a concession for Islam that matches concessions already made to other
faiths.
Maybe we can find some airport people who know better what's going on in Europe
now, and in the Middle East.
I came through Beijing a couple of weeks ago, and I looked for a chapel there,
and found none. Considering how heavily used most of the Buddhist shrines in
China are, as religious practice locations, I thought that a little surprising.
I don't speak Chinese at all, and couldn't find anyone to ask. All other
public spaces I saw have signs of codes of conduct, which prohibit
"superstitious activities."
Perhaps we could all call our local airports, and ask about chapels. We might
discover something that way.
Ed Darrell Dallas
From: Alan E Brownstein <[email protected]>
To: Ed Darrell <[email protected]>; Law & Religion issues for Law
Academics <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, October 28, 2015 3:28 PM
Subject: RE: Muslim-focused "reflection room" in airport Ed knows much more
about the ownership and management of airports than I do – although it’s not
hard to satisfy that standard. But I recall several cases where airport
governing authorities were sued for violating the free speech rights of people
using the airport terminals for expressive purposes. Is the entity that adopts
airport terminal regulations different than the one that determines whether
chapels should be located in the terminal or perhaps some airports are more
clearly government owned and managed than others. I’m just curious. If there is
no state action here, would it be constitutional for an airport to have a
denominational chapel that conduct services for only one faith?
From:[email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]]On Behalf Of Ed Darrell
Sent: Wednesday, October 28, 2015 11:29 AM
To: Law & Religion issues for Law Academics
Subject: Re: Muslim-focused "reflection room" in airport Again I note,
airport terminals are not buildings that state pays for nor pays to maintain
(though title often falls to a governmental entity if the facility is
abandoned). I just don't think our usual "what can government do" analysis
applies, any more than it would apply to the religious verse citations listed
on the soft-drink cups at In-n-Out Burgers.
Ed Darrell
Dallas
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