Lex Anteinternet: Just another day in the Big Top

Lex Anteinternet: Just another day in the Big Top: Lex Anteinternet: How to loose friends, make enemies, make a bad arg... : Our friend here again.  As we previoulsy noted, a Morganucodon, ou...

And now we hear from a noted law commentator, as reported in the electronic Cowboy State Daily.

Limited Public Forum  

The policy UW used to justify its action may not be enough from a First Amendment standpoint, Eugene Volokh, First Amendment professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, told Cowboy State Daily. 

The author of the textbook “The First Amendment and Related Statutes,” Volokh specializes in First Amendment law.   

Government entities like the university are not constitutionally obligated to allow various kinds of speech within their buildings, Volokh said. However, once the entity decides to hold a public forum, the First Amendment right to free speech then extends to people inside the building, though it may be limited by the entity’s existing policies.   

Those policies must be specific and viewpoint neutral, said Volokh, adding that the tabling policy UW referenced in Schmidt’s suspension letter appears too vague to justify suspending his tabling privileges. 

Well as noted by this noted law commentator:

3. There might be a lesson in here in what happens when you convert a building from what was essentially offices, ancillary rooms and a bookstore into one that's a place for loitering of all types.