Friends of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial v. Kennedy, 95-5393

• Decision Date: 06 June 1997
• Docket Number: No. 95-5393,95-5393
• Citation: 116 F.3d 495
• Parties: , 25 Media L. Rep. 1828 FRIENDS OF THE VIETNAM VETERANS MEMORIAL, et al., Appellees, v. Roger G. KENNEDY, Director, National Park Service, et al., Appellants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — District of Columbia Circuit

Page 495

116 F.3d 495

325 U.S.App.D.C. 151, 25 Media L. Rep. 1828

FRIENDS OF THE VIETNAM VETERANS MEMORIAL, et al., Appellees, v. Roger G. KENNEDY, Director, National Park Service, et al., Appellants.

No. 95-5393.

United States Court of Appeals District of Columbia Circuit.

Argued April 11, 1997.

Decided June 6, 1997.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Columbia (95cv00808).

Marina Utgoff-Braswell, Assistant United States Attorney, Washington, DC, argued the cause for appellants, with whom Eric H. Holder, Jr., United States Attorney, and R. Craig Lawrence, Assistant United States Attorney, were on the briefs.

David M. Liberman, Los Angeles, CA, argued the cause for appellees, with whom Alexander P. Humphrey, McLean, VA, was on the brief.

Arthur B. Spitzer, Washington, DC, was on the brief for amicus curiae American Civil Liberties Union of the National Capital Area.

Before SILBERMAN, RANDOLPH, and ROGERS, Circuit Judges.

Opinion for the Court filed by Circuit Judge SILBERMAN.

SILBERMAN, Circuit Judge:

The National Park Service prohibits the sale of a number of items, among them t-shirts, on the National Mall. Friends of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial challenged that prohibition as a violation of the First Amendment and prevailed in the district court. We reverse.

I.

The Mall is an approximately two-mile long strip of national parkland situated in the midst of Washington, D.C. It is the site of monuments marking great figures and events in our nation's history. At the west end sits the Lincoln Memorial, flanked to the north by the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and to the south by the Korean War Veterans Memorial. The towering Washington Monument stands in the middle of the Mall, the museums of the Smithsonian run along either side, and the United States Capitol forms the eastern border. Still the Mall is more than home to these enduring symbols of our nationhood. Its grassy expanse provides areas for any number of recreational activities, and its location in the heart of the nation's capital makes it a prime location for demonstrations. It is here where Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech, where both sides of the abortion debate have staged passionate demonstrations, and where on any given day one may witness people gathering to voice their public concerns. As we have said before, "It is here that the constitutional rights of speech and peaceful assembly find their fullest expression." ISKCON of Potomac, Inc. v. Kennedy, 61 F.3d 949, 952 (D.C.Cir.1995).

But Congress has charged the National Park Service with regulating the use of the Mall so as to "conform" such use "to the fundamental purpose" of "conserv[ing] the scenery and the natural and historic objects ... and ... provid[ing] for the enjoyment of the same in such manner ... as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations." 16 U.S.C. § 1 (1994). To this end, the Park Service has promulgated regulations providing that "[d]emonstrations and special events may be held only pursuant to a permit issued" by the Park Service. Although the Park Service has generally prohibited sales on federal parkland in the D.C. area without a (rarely issued) permit, it did in 1976 promulgate a regulation allowing the sale or distribution of "newspapers, leaflets and pamphlets" in the context of special events and demonstrations. Over time, the Park Service issued enforcement guidelines extending "newspapers, leaflets and pamphlets" to include t-shirts, bumper stickers, buttons, and posters, so long as the sale of those items conveyed a message "directly related" to the special event or demonstration. In 1995, however, concerned chiefly with an increasing atmosphere of commercialism on the Mall, the Park Service rescinded its enforcement guidelines and promulgated a regulation limiting sales on federal parkland in the D.C. area to "books, newspapers, leaflets, pamphlets, buttons and bumper stickers." 36 C.F.R. § 7.96(k)(1), (2) (1996).

Friends of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial (Friends), along with six other nonprofit organizations ¹ that "seek to educate the general public about their respective beliefs and activities," sought declarative and injunctive relief in the district court on the ground that the new regulation, as applied to prohibit the sale of message-bearing t-shirts on the Mall, violated the First Amendment. The district court agreed and enjoined the regulation.

II.

The government contends that the district judge's order is palpably in conflict with our recent opinion in ISKCON. We agree. There, we reviewed the constitutionality of this very same regulation insofar as it prohibited in-person solicitations, the sale of audiotapes, and the sale of religious beads on the Mall. We determined that the regulation was content-neutral and would thus be upheld as long it was " 'narrowly [tailored] to serve a significant governmental interest' " and " 'le[ft] open ample alternative channels for communication' of the message." 61 F.3d at 955 (quoting Clark v. Community for Creative Non-Violence, 468 U.S. 288, 293, 104 S.Ct. 3065, 3069, 82 L.Ed.2d 221 (1984)); see also White House Vigil for the ERA Comm. v. Clark, 746 F.2d 1518, 1527 (D.C.Cir.1984). Although the solicitation ban did not pass muster--we could not see how allowing "individuals or groups participating in an authorized demonstration ... to solicit donations within the confines of a restricted permit area" would "add to whatever adverse impact [would] result" from the demonstration itself, 61 F.3d at 956--we upheld the proscription on the sale of beads and audiotapes. We rejected the argument that the regulation was fatally underinclusive because it prohibited the sale of beads and audiotapes while permitting the sale of, for example, books and bumper stickers. We did not think that underinclusiveness "ha[d] the effect of favoring a particular view" or "diminish[ed] the credibility of the Park Service's rationale" for prohibiting the sale of certain items. See id. at 956-57; but see id. at 960 (Ginsburg, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part). Because the regulation was not " 'substantially broader than necessary to achieve the government's interests,' " and because the alternative ways in which the complainants could express their message were "more than adequate," the regulation did not violate the First Amendment. See id. at 958 (quotingWard v. Rock Against Racism, 491 U.S. 781, 800, 109 S.Ct. 2746, 2758-59, 105 L.Ed.2d 661 (1989)).

Friends concede that the government's asserted interests in reducing "discordant and excessive commercialism, as well as degraded aesthetic values," id. at 952 (citing 59 Fed.Reg. at 25,857 (1994)), are legitimate. In ISKCON, we thought those interests jeopardized by the sale of beads and audiotapes. It is the Park Service's view that the "relatively constant, intrusive and intimidating" t-shirt sales activities were largely responsible for the "pronounced commercialization" of the Mall that the regulation seeks to contain. 60 Fed.Reg. at 17,644 (1995). The Service may certainly take steps to limit the commercialization of the Mall, and the record is replete with evidence that t-shirt sales, even more than the sale of beads and audiotapes, substantially contributed to that phenomenon. We agree with Judge Ginsburg that, if anything, the ban on t-shirt sales is more easily justified than the ban on audiotapes. See 61 F.3d at 961 (Ginsburg, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part). If the Park Service's interests were significant in ISKCON, then a fortiori they are significant here.

Friends argue that t-shirts should nevertheless be distinguished from beads and audiotapes. The district court in this regard characterized the sale of t-shirts as "a unique and especially effective means of communicating the plaintiffs' point of view" because the purchaser aids the seller in spreading the message by wearing the t-shirt; the buyer becomes, in the district...