Editing Public space (section)

===Restrictions on state action in the United States===
{{quote box|width=40%|align=right|quote=If Members of the public had no right whatsoever to distribute leaflets or engage in other expressive activity on government-owned property...then there would be little if any opportunity to exercise their rights of freedom of expression.|source=[[Supreme Court of Canada]], defending right to poster on public utility poles and hand out leaflets in public government-owned buildings<ref name="inter">Petersen, Klaus & Allan C. Hutchinson. "Interpreting Censorship in Canada", [[University of Toronto Press]], 1999.</ref>}}
In the United States the right of the people to engage in speech and assembly in public places may not be unreasonably restricted by the federal or state government.<ref>[[First Amendment to the United States Constitution]]</ref> The government cannot usually limit one's speech beyond what is reasonable in a public space, which is considered to be a public [[forum (legal)|forum]] (that is, screaming epithets at passers-by can be stopped; proselytizing one's religion probably cannot).  In a private&mdash;that is, non-public&mdash;forum, the government can control one's speech to a much greater degree; for instance, protesting one's objection to medicare reform will not be tolerated in the gallery of the United States Senate. This is not to say that the government can control what one says in their own home or to others; it can only control government property in this way. The concept of a public forum is not limited to physical space or public property, for example, a newspaper might be considered a public forum, but see [[Forum (legal)|forum in the legal sense]] as the term has a specific meaning in United States law.

Parks, malls, beaches, waiting rooms, etc., may be closed at night. As this does not exclude any specific group, it is generally not considered a restriction on public use. Entry to public parks cannot be restricted based upon a user's residence.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://classweb.gmu.edu/jkozlows/lawarts/10OCT01.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2011-10-23 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120414211434/http://classweb.gmu.edu/jkozlows/lawarts/10OCT01.pdf |archive-date=2012-04-14 }}</ref>