Silky Johnson
I wish you all the bad things in life.
Yes, they can.Who owns the Arena is rather important. One of the few ways a private company is restricted by the 1st amendment is when they're providing services on behalf of a government, the state action doctrine.
I'm not familiar with any cases regulating 1st amendment protections on an NHL; and I feel (as stated in my original post) that it may not qualify for the state action doctrine.
Basically a government can't 'launder' their 1st amendment restrictions by having a nominal 3rd (private) party censor people on their behalf.
If a government leases an office to a private business is that office considered a public space? It is not.
The classification of government-owned stadiums leased to private sports teams under the First Amendment hinges on the "public forum" doctrine. This doctrine delineates government properties into categories—traditional public forums, designated public forums, and nonpublic forums—each with varying levels of speech protection.
In Perry Education Association v. Perry Local Educators' Association, 460 U.S. 37 (1983), the U.S. Supreme Court outlined these distinctions:
Traditional Public Forums: Places like parks and sidewalks that have historically been open for public expression.
Designated Public Forums: Government properties intentionally opened for public discourse.
Nonpublic Forums: Government properties not traditionally nor intentionally opened for public communication.
The Court held that in nonpublic forums, the government can impose restrictions on speech as long as they are reasonable and not an effort to suppress expression merely because public officials oppose the speaker's view.
Applying this framework, courts have generally found that government-owned stadiums leased to private entities are considered nonpublic forums. For instance, in Camenzind v. California Exposition & State Fair, No. 22-15931 (9th Cir. Oct. 31, 2023), the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals determined that the California Exposition fairgrounds, when leased to private organizations, functioned as a nonpublic forum. The court emphasized that such properties are not traditionally open to public expression and that the government can impose reasonable restrictions on speech within these venues.
A government-owned stadium leased to a private sports team is typically classified as a nonpublic forum, where First Amendment protections are limited, and the government or lessee can enforce reasonable speech restrictions.
Also, its not important regarding Hartman as this is an employment issue rather than public forum issue.