NCJ Number
125029
Date Published
1990
Length
23 pages
Annotation
Current socioeconomic structures so impede public discourse that the first amendment guarantees of freedom of speech and assembly are in danger of becoming irrelevant.
Abstract
The home, the workplace, and the shopping mall are the three most frequented spaces occupied by U.S. citizens. Those who would exercise the freedom of communication effectively must therefore be able to communicate with persons inhabiting these spaces. Access to these spaces is limited, however, by property law, which provides for exclusion from the means of access. The first amendment exists to ensure that government will not obstruct persons when they attempt to implement the "good" in thought and politics. Ultimately, government's role is to ensure the establishment of a democratic system of societal discourse to which all citizens will have meaningful access, both individually and collectively. Increasingly, however, the means of communicating with persons in their most frequented spaces are under the control of large communication networks, i.e., television networks, newspaper publishers, and radio networks. It is on the basis of private ownership that citizens' access to the important media of today and tomorrow has been restricted. To ensure that the first amendment has meaning for individuals and groups that do not own the major means of communication in contemporary society, the courts must render decisions that balance property rights with reasonable access to public communications forums. 98 footnotes.