Everybody out of the Pool: Recognizing a First Amendment Claim for the Retaliatory Closure of (Real or Virtual) Public Forums
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EVERYBODY OUT OF THE POOL: RECOGNIZING A FIRST
AMENDMENT CLAIM FOR THE RETALIATORY CLOSURE OF
(REAL OR VIRTUAL) PUBLIC FORUMS
Frank D. LoMonte*
First Amendment law, as developed by the Supreme Court
over the past several decades, has as its primary, though
unstated, object the discovery of improper governmental
motives... . Or, to put the point another way, the application
of First Amendment law is best understood and most readily
explained as a kind of motive-hunting.
Elena Kagan]
INTRODUCTION .........................................................................................2
I. THE FIRST AMENDMENT AND THE PUBLIC FORUM .....................5
A. First Amendment Basics .....................................................5
B. Evolution of the Forum Doctrine .......................................7
C. Rosenberger and the Metaphysical Forum ......................10
D. Forums-dot-com: Government-Run Social
M edia A ccounts ................................................................12
II. A FUNNY THING HAPPENED: WHEN GOVERNMENT
CLOSES A FORUM .................................................................. 15
A. The Fourth Circuit View: Government's
M otive Irrelevant............................. .............................16
1. The City of Lexington Case: Closure in
Response to Divisive Political Speech......................16
2. The Underpinnings of City of Lexington:
How Courts Concluded that Motive is
Irrelevant ...................................................................17
B. The Better View: Retaliatory Closure
Unconstitutional ........................................................... 22
III. AN UNFUNNY THING HAPPENED: THE KOALA CASE .................24
A. District Court Rulings ......................................................26
B. The Ninth Circuit Ruling ..................................................28
Professor & Director of the Joseph L. Brechner Center for Freedom of Information at
the University of Florida in Gainesville, Fla.; B.A., 1992, Political Science, Georgia State
University; J.D. (Order of the Coif), 2000, University of Georgia School of Law. By way of
transparency, the author co-signed an amicus brief to the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in
the case of Koala v. Khosla, urging reversal in favor of the plaintiff-appellants, a case cited
extensively herein.
1. Elena Kagan, Private Speech, Public Purpose: The Role of Governmental Motive in
First Amendment Doctrine, 63 U. CH I. L. REV. 413, 414 (1996).](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/ufpp30&div=6&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Everybody out of the Pool: Recognizing a First Amendment Claim for the Retaliatory Closure of (Real or Virtual) Public Forums
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