International Caucus of Labor Committees v. City of Montgomery

The majority today holds that the use of a table to facilitate speech enjoys no First Amendment protection at all unless such use is “necessary to the exercise of First Amendment rights.” Majority at 2655. Because I believe that this is not the standard that has evolved through Supreme Court First Amendment jurisprudence, I dissent.

The Supreme Court has not expressly set forth a test for determining the degree to which conduct must be linked to protected speech to be entitled to some level of constitutional protection.1 The closest the Court has come to articulating such a test is found in…