i LJQLEIILLJLLJLI .n'. LOOLELLLJLLIIL J. \\ULLJLLI. U11 LLLIOJ L} The First Amendment of then United States guarantees the freedom of religion, expression, assembly, and the right to petition. Congress is forbidden from restricting the press or the rights to individuals to speak freely. The First Amendment also guarantees the right of Citizens to assemble peaceably and to petition their government. The Freedonia Federation to Free the Falcon is denied its right to peacefully assemble. The Freedonia Federation to Free the Falcon's agenda is to free all the falcons from the zoo and release them into the wild. This federation is wishing to make their agenda public through holding a massive rally that will be hroadcasted on the media during the middle of the day on a subway platform. Since a subway platform during the day has a lot of commuters, this would be the ideal place for the federation to hold their rally. The platform this federation has chosen is off to the side of the subway out of the way of moving traffic. This platform will cause minimal interference with the commuters. Although the federation will be out of the way, the city council believes that they will still interfere with the trafc. The city council also states that having the many people on the platform may pose a fire risk. The last item city council said is that commuters might be offended or annoyed by the actives of the protestors. However, this right is not absolute, and it is subjected to limitations. In this case, for the First Amendment to be protected to the federation we must determine if the subway platform is a public forum. Under chapter 2, section B of the book \"First Amendment Implications for Transit Facilities: Speech, Advertising, and Loitering\" it states that, \"subway stations are like busses and airport terminals, nonpublic forum.\" A subway state is not a public forum which means it is not protected by the First Amendment. City council states that the rally will cause interference with the commuters. A massive rally on a subway platform may cause frustration to traveling commuters. A similar situation happened under the case Young v. New York City Transit Authority, 729 F.Supp. 341 {1990]. The court protected the passengers from unwanted touching, extortion, harassment and intimidation. The case also stated that a \"subway is the primary means of transportation for literally millions of people of modest means. . .who are dependent on the subway for the conduct of their daily affairs. ..the City has an obvious interest in providing them with a reasonably safe, propitious and benign means of public transportation.\" By allowing a rally here, it is not only causing an interference with the commuters but also it can offend the commuters and annoy them by the "Edi-Jada... at 4-1.... Ianun-IL-t -..L-:.-.L -.-.-.- \"1.... "and..." 1-... $1.... .-.:a. "nu":1 '1'an .-..-.L..-.-. :- +Lnun 5