Agenda - 10-09-2007-6a - Laserfiche WebLink

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Orange County Board of Cornrnissioners Page 2 October 4, 2007 public foxa and nonpublic fora. Public streets and parks are traditional public fora.4 They have been "by long tradition...devoted to assembly and debate."$ The ability of the government to limit speech and expression in a traditional public forum is shaaply circumscribed. Content based regulation is justified only when "necessary to serve a compelling State interest and [when] it is narrowly drawn to achieve that end."6 Content- neutral restrictions that regulate time, place and manner of speech are permissible so long as they are "narrowly tailored to serve a significant government interest, and leave open ample alternative channels of communication."' Among content-neutral xestrictions reviewed by the courts are those related to fees. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit$ recently addressed a case on similar facts to those presented by the request of Reverend Brooks. In Child Evangelism Fellowship of South Carolina v. Anderson School District Five,9 the Court of Appeals ruled that if a governmental body opens its facilities for public use and attempts to recoup the costs for this service, then it must adopt a neutral system for assessing or waiving such charges, not one based on the good faith of government officials. In Child Evan elf ism, plaintiff, a religious organization, sued the defendant Anderson South Carolina School District ("Anderson") for violating the First Amendment and challenged policies under which Child Evangelism. Fellowship was denied a fee waiver for religious club meetings that it sought to bald in the school district's facilities. Anderson had a policy in place that allowed school officials to "waive fees for use of its facilities "as determined to be in the district's best interest,' among other grounds:'~° Anderson had waived usage fees in the past for the Boy Scouts and Crirl Scouts, the Brownies, YMCA, the Anderson County Democratic and Republican parties. ~ 1 Anderson had received payments for use of its facilities from the Anderson County Disabilities and Special Needs Parent Club, a Kiwanis Club, the Miss Anderson USA Pageant, and a number of churches.12 Child Evangelism Fellowship requested a fee waiver under Anderson's facility use policy. Anderson denied the waiver "citing `the extent and frequency of your planned use of our facilities."'13 The Fourth Circuit Court of a Discussion of the government's power to regulate speech and, as it relates to a fee waiver request, the power to waive fees for the use of a limited public forum or a nonpublic forum is not part of the analysis in this letter because the County's Efland Cheeks Community Park is, notwithstanding the requirement that an application be made for group use and a fee paid for graup use, a traditional public forum. s Perry Educ. Assn v. Perry Local Educators' Assn, 460 U.S. 37, 45 (1983). ~ Id. 460 U.S. at 45. Id. e The Fourth Circuik Court of Appeals is the Federal appellate court for each Federal District Court of North Carolina, and its decisions constitute binding precedent for Federal District Courts in North Carolina. 9 470 F.3d 1062,1074 (2006). 10 Id. at 1064. r r Id. at 1065. '2 Id. at 1065. 13 Id. at 1065.