• In the U.S. Supreme Court case of Lovell v. City of Griffin, Ga., the court ruled that cities cannot enact broad bans against the distribution of newspapers, literature and other information on public property. This case involved a city prohibiting the distribution of literature of any kind at any time, at any place, and in any manner without a permit from the city manager. The court said this ordinance: "strikes at the very foundation of freedom of the press by subjecting it to license and censorship."
• The U.S. Supreme Court case of Jones v. City of Opelika, Ala., dealt with a case that involved a city's right to regulate activities that have First Amendment protection. The court ruled, "Although a municipality may enact regulations in the interest of public safety, health, welfare or convenience, these may not abridge the individual liberties secured by the Constitution to those who wish to speak, write, print or circulate information or opinion."
• The Colorado Supreme Court, in a unanimous June 1997 decision, upheld the right of publishers Robert Lewis and Bert Matthews to sell a like publication about the Colorado Rockies baseball team on the public right-of-way around Coors Field in Denver. The stadium was built with taxpayer dollars. The seven justices reaffirmed the longstanding notion that the stadium's walkways are "public forum property under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution."
• In the U.S. Supreme Court case of Valentine v. Christensen, the court ruled: "We have unequivocally held that the streets are proper places for the exercise of freedom of communicating information and disseminating opinion and that, though the states and municipalities may appropriately regulate the privilege in the public interest, they may not unduly burden or proscribe its employment in these public thoroughfares." In Jamison v. Texas: "one who is rightfully on a street which the state has left open to the public carries with him there as elsewhere the constitutional right to express his views in an orderly fashion. This right extends to the communication of ideas by handbills and literature as well as the spoken word."
• In a local governmental decision, on June 23, 1999, the Escambia County commission cited First Amendment concerns in rejecting an ordinance banning roadway sales. Vendors continue to sell the Pensacola News Journal not only on the sidewalk, but also in the roadway ... which was the commission's concern in the first place. Sidewalk distribution was not the issue. This allowable action is far wider-reaching in time, place and manner than what Gregory is planning.
