Free speech on Fremont

Local government attempts to quash free speech in public forums are a lot like Middle East violence and Nevada budget battles -- no matter how many times the issue is supposedly resolved, it keeps finding its way onto the front pages of the newspaper.

The city of Las Vegas has been especially stubborn in trying to ban activities such as leafletting and soliciting along downtown's Fremont Street Experience. Despite obvious constitutional problems with its ordinances, the city has continued to assert that minor revisions could end its 12-year legal fight with the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada while preventing the kinds of activities Fremont Street Experience officials deem detrimental to business.

Of course, anytime government seeks to regulate free expression in an area otherwise open to everyone, the result is unconstitutional policy. And time and again, federal courts have slapped down the city's efforts to keep out the riffraff and religious and political messages with the potential to offend tourists.

Last week, however, brought a change of course for the Las Vegas City Council. Yes, the council will try again to write an ordinance that will pass constitutional muster. But it will not appeal a March federal court ruling that a previous rewrite of the ordinance violated the First Amendment, Mayor Oscar Goodman said. And the city will actually seek the input of the ACLU to avoid further taxpayer-funded litigation.

If indeed the city and the ACLU can reach agreement on language that doesn't require the involvement of expensive attorneys and federal judges, it would be an encouraging development. But the city -- and its taxpayers -- would be far better off by moving on and leaving the entire issue to existing law.

Overly aggressive solicitors who impede pedestrians and block sidewalks can be cited. Someone politely offering information on a church or a political candidate cannot.

"The Fremont Street Experience is a public forum. It is open to the full panoply of First Amendment activities," said ACLU of Nevada Executive Director Gary Peck.

" 'Free speech is bad for business on Fremont Street' is not a compelling interest that the courts have recognized as legitimate."

Regardless of whether the city and the ACLU reach an agreement on a new ordinance, the longstanding practice of restricting free speech on Fremont Street must end.