A city operates a bus system with space on buses for placards. A request to post a placard about animal cruelty is denied because it is offensive to a paying circus. The bus placard space is a designated public forum. The denial triggers which standard of scrutiny?

A city operates a bus system with space on buses for placards. A request to post a placard about animal cruelty is denied because it is offensive to a paying circus. The bus placard space is a designated public forum. The denial triggers which standard of scrutiny?

• A. Rational basis review because the denial is reasonable
• B. Strict scrutiny because the denial is content-based
• C. Intermediate scrutiny because it is related to government speech
• D. No First Amendment concern because the space is not a forum for public discourse

Answer: (B)

In a designated public forum, the government may not exclude private speech based on its content or viewpoint. When the restriction on speech is content-based, it triggers strict scrutiny: the government must show a compelling interest and that the restriction is narrowly tailored to achieve that interest. Here, banning a placard about animal cruelty because it offends a circus targets the message itself, not merely how or when it’s displayed. That makes it a content-based restriction on private speech in a designated public forum, so strict scrutiny applies. The space is opened for expression by the public, not as government speech, so the government’s ordinary power to regulate its own messages does not govern this situation. Since the denial rests on the content (and possibly the viewpoint) of the message, it’s unlikely to satisfy strict scrutiny.

In a designated public forum, the government may not exclude private speech based on its content or viewpoint. When the restriction on speech is content-based, it triggers strict scrutiny: the government must show a compelling interest and that the restriction is narrowly tailored to achieve that interest.

Here, banning a placard about animal cruelty because it offends a circus targets the message itself, not merely how or when it’s displayed. That makes it a content-based restriction on private speech in a designated public forum, so strict scrutiny applies. The space is opened for expression by the public, not as government speech, so the government’s ordinary power to regulate its own messages does not govern this situation. Since the denial rests on the content (and possibly the viewpoint) of the message, it’s unlikely to satisfy strict scrutiny.