Laserfiche WebLink
of the State } s claims as unsupported by the law or as pretextual . Notably, the Court stated <br />that even assuming an applicable nondiscrimination law, the first reason given by the <br />State violates the Klan's freedom of political association, <br />summary in the Harvard Law Review explains the difficult area of law that <br />surrounded the issues of the Cuffley opinion and asserts that the Court missed an <br />opportunity to clarify the area. Generally, the government conditioning of public benefits <br />on silence or conformist speech is unconstitutional. However, under the doctrine of <br />"nonsubsldizatlon" the government may selectively subsidize expression of favored ideas <br />and refuse to finance disfavored messages. It is often difficult to distinguish between <br />nonsubsidization and withholding of benefits. <br />The Law Review article argues that the Court "bent over backward to ignore" that <br />the Adopt - - Highway program contained an element of govern ment speech in the <br />recognition of the participant on the signs. The argument continues that the Court should <br />have recognized the dual nature of the program as a government benefit and government <br />speech and established a limit regarding conditions and viewpoint discrimination. Under <br />this view, the State of Missouri could have argued that the Klan could participate in the <br />program and pick -up litter, but the State retained control over its own speech on whether <br />to recognize the Flan with a sign. while this is an interesting argument, it really doesn't <br />add much regarding "welcome to Roseville" signs because there is no aspect to the <br />program other than the sign. <br />An argument can be made that the suns are City speech and the City has authority <br />to control what it says. However, in light of the 'ufey decision and other law, <br />restrictions on participation in a "Welcome to Roseville" sign program should be drawn <br />in a content neural manner. Examples of permissible restrictions on a sponsoring <br />organization would include requiring that it be located in the City, that it be in the City <br />for a specific period of time or that it be tax - exempt. It should be recognized that, similar <br />to the rental of City space, the City is required to include any group that meets the <br />eligibility requirements. <br />RRM: 50369 <br />2 <br />