Independence Hall

[Mark Rahdert]

        A question I always wonder about when considering something like a
creche and hearing public forum/equal access arguments for it, is whether
time place and manner aspects of the forum are being administered
nonpreferentially.  Is the space allocated first-come first-serve or on some
other content- and viewpoint-neutral basis? Can anyone put up a display and
leave it there for park personnel/police etc. to supervise and maintain.
Would, e.g., the ACLU be able to put up a display championing separation of
church and state?  Would the ACLU be able to preempt the RC church for the
whole Christmas season, if they applied earlier?  Would requests to erect
Buddhas, Yang/Yin symbols, a star and crescent or the like be treated the
same -- for this season, for some other season?  Would a request by atheists
to conduct a creche-burning be allowed?  I don't know any facts about this
sort of thing regarding Independence Hall and Philadelphia, but my guess is
that creche requests at Christmas often get preferential tp&m treatment.

        If they do, is that enough to take them out of the Pinette box and
put them in the Allegheny County box?

        Mark Rahdert
        Temple Law School
 At 03:24 PM 12/10/97 -0600, Douglas Laycock wrote:
>        1.  The desire to maintain period decor at Independence Hall is one
>of the reasons my guess is that it has never been a forum, and that the
>sponsor of the creche are getting special treatment.
>
>        2.  The long quotation from the plurality in Pinette is consistent
>with my reading of Allegheny County.  Equal access is OK (Pinette), but
>preferential access for a religious message is an establishment (Allegheny
>County).  Plaintiffs in Pinette argued that equal access was an
>establishment if a (reasonable?  not wholly unreasonable?  not lunatic?
>any?) observer might be confused.  That was indeed an extension of of the
>endorsement idea in O'Connor's opinions, in Allegheny County, and in the
>concurrence for four justices in Lee v. Weisman.
>
>
>Douglas Laycock
>University of Texas Law School
>727 E. Dean Keeton St.
>Austin, TX  78705
>        512-471-3275 (voice)
>        512-471-6988 (fax)
>        dlaycock at mail.law.utexas.edu
>