Subject: Airports Are Not Public Forums, Appeals Court Says in Rights Case 
Date: Published: 2/11/91 (55 lines)
Source: Wall Street Journal. Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc.

    Law -- Legal Beat:
    Airports Are Not Public Forums,
    Appeals Court Says in Rights Case
    ----
    By Wade Lambert and Amy Dockser Marcus
    Staff Reporters of The Wall Street Journal

    A federal appeals court ruled that solicitations can be
 banned at airport terminals, in a decision that for the first
 time holds that airports aren't public forums where
 free-speech rights must be allowed.

[110 lines irrelevant to AIDS have been removed.  -- sysop]

    ---
    ADVOCACY GROUP was improperly barred from state capital,
 judge rules.
    A federal judge in Harrisburg ruled that Pennsylvania
 state officials violated the free speech rights of ACT UP,
 the vocal AIDS activist group, by barring its members from
 the public gallery of the state capitol last month.
    Members of the Philadelphia branch of ACT UP, the AIDS
 Coalition to Unleash Power, had tried to enter the gallery
 Jan. 28 to conduct a silent protest against Gov. Robert Casey
 during his state of the state address.  Capitol police barred
 access out of fear that ACT UP would try to break up the
 governor's speech.
    American Civil Liberties Union staff attorney Scott Burris
 argued that each of ACT UP's branches is independent and that
 members of the Philadelphia branch rarely engage in unruly
 civil disobedience.  The New York branch of ACT UP has tried
 to shut down sessions of the New York Legislature.
    In a harshly worded opinion, U. S. District Judge Sylvia
 Rambo denounced the closing of the visitors gallery as "the
 spitting image of prior restraint."  She refused, however, to
 issue an injunction because the suit improperly named state
 and capitol police officials as defendants.  Only State
 Speaker of the House Robert W. O'Donnell, through the
 sergeant at arms, has the power to close the gallery, the
 judge said.
    Mr. Burris said he plans to pursue the case for punitive
 damages and a permanent injunction prohibiting state police
 action against lawful protests by ACT UP. 
    Mr. O'Donnell said that in the future, when weighing
 security and access issues, he will be inclined "to err on
 the side of access" after examining the allegations.

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