Free Speech, the First Amendment, and Time, Place and Manner Restrictions in Public Spaces

• First Amendment freedom of speech 
• Public forums and the First Amendment 
• Free speech activities 

Whether a person may constitutionally exercise his or her constitutional First Amendment free speech (or California Speech Clause) rights at a specific location depends upon whether the location at issue is recognized as a public forum. 

The Sacramento Hmong New Year Organization leased the Cal Expo fairgrounds to host the group’s 2018 Hmong New Year Festival in 2018. (The Hmong people are an indigenous group originally from East and Southeast Asia.) The festival took place over four days in the fall of that year and attracted nearly 30,000 attendees. Vendors paid to rent booths and attendees were required to purchase a ticket for entry.  

Burt Camenzind is an Evangelical Christian who hoped to spread the message of his faith at the festival. He arrived at the fairgrounds wearing a vest covered in pockets, each filled with custom coins bearing biblical verses and other religious messages, some in the Hmong language. Camenzind intended to distribute the coins to festival attendees as he talked to them, one-on-one, about his religion.  

The Cal Expo is owned by the state of California Exposition and State Fair Fairgrounds in Sacramento County. About ....