holding that a Washington, DC regulation making it unlawful, within 500 feet of a foreign embassy, either to display any sign that tends to bring the foreign government into “public odium” or “public disrepute” amounts to a content-based speech restriction because it focuses on the direct impact of the speech on a foreign government
How later courts described this case
- holding that a Washington, DC regulation making it unlawful, within 500 feet of a foreign embassy, either to display any sign that tends to bring the foreign government into “public odium” or “public disrepute” amounts to a content-based speech restriction because it focuses on the direct impact of the speech on a foreign government
- holding that when a court determines that a municipal ordinance is content-based, the strict-scrutiny standard of review applies and the municipality must show that the regulation is necessary to serve a compelling state interest and that it is narrowly tailored to achieve a compelling state interest
- holding that content-based restrictions on political speech in public forum must be “necessary to serve a compelling state interest and ... narrowly drawn to achieve that end” (quoting Perry Educ. Ass’n v. Perry Local Educators’ Ass’n, 460 U.S. 37, 45, 103 S.Ct. 948, 74 L.Ed.2d 794 (1983))
- finding that an ordinance restricting picketing near a foreign embassy was not the least restrictive means of serving the asserted government interest; existence of an analogous, but more narrowly drawn, federal statute showed that “a less restrictive alternative is readily available”
Written by the judges who cited it.
Distinguished
Distinguished by Michael A. Kroll v. United States Capitol Police, 847 F.2d 899 (1988)
For similar reasons, the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Boos v. Barry, — U.S. —, 108 S.Ct. 1157, 99 L.Ed.2d 333 (1988), is inapposite to our analysis concerning events which occurred in 1980.
The opinion
Chief Justice Rehnquist,
with whom
Justices White and Blackmun join, concurring in part and dissenting in part.
For the reasons stated by Judge Bork in his majority opinion below, I would uphold that portion of § 22-1115 of the District of Columbia Code that prohibits the display of any sign within 500 feet of a foreign embassy if that sign tends to *339 bring that foreign government into “public odium” or “public disrepute.” However, I agree with Justice O’Connor that §22-1115’s congregation clause is not unconstitutional and that the exemption for labor picketing does not violate the Equal Protection Clause, so I join in Parts III and IV of the majority opinion.