Columnist Jeff German: Sidewalks belong to the public

Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2003 | 10:51 a.m.

Of all of our freedoms in a democracy, there is nothing more important than freedom of speech under the First Amendment.

The folks at Green Valley Ranch Station Casino, who went to the extreme last week to protect the privacy of their celebrity guest, Michael Jackson, the world's most famous accused child molester, apparently don't share that opinion.

Let me tell you why I believe that.

Last Thursday was as bizarre a day I've ever had in 25 years in the news business in Las Vegas.

It began in the morning, in the middle of the Michael Jackson watch, when I went over to Green Valley Ranch Station in Henderson and was able to confirm that the singer had been staying there before he flew to Santa Barbara, Calif., to surrender to police on an arrest warrant.

After Jackson was released on bail, he flew back to Las Vegas, and word was he was returning to Green Valley Ranch Station. So the boss asked me to go back to the upscale neighborhood casino to stake it out.

About this time the King of Pop had decided to take the media and, through live television, all of Las Vegas on a surreal two-hour parade through town.

It was then that I learned security officers at Green Valley Ranch Station weren't in a mood to be very neighborly.

Within two minutes of my entering the posh hotel lobby, a plain-clothes officer escorted me off the property. A few minutes later, Sun photographer Ethan Miller joined me on the well-manicured sidewalk along Carnegie Road, maybe 100 feet from the hotel lobby. A KVVU TV-5 news crew also showed up, as television helicopters hovering over Jackson's motorcade could be seen approaching in the distance.

In a few more minutes, another well-dressed Green Valley Ranch official approached and forcefully asked us to leave the sidewalk, saying the resort's lawyers had told him we were standing on private property.

Knowing a little bit about the sidewalk issue, we were skeptical of his claim, but we moved into the street by the curb. The official had warned that he would call Henderson police if we insisted on congregating nearby, and sure enough, within minutes, a motorcycle officer told us we couldn't stand in the street. He also insisted the sidewalk was private.

By this time, Jackson's motorcade had turned away from Green Valley Ranch Station and was trekking across town with camera crews in tow in the true tradition of O.J. Simpson. So we decided to leave and save the sidewalk battle for another day.

This issue has become one of the more hotly contested legal debates around here in recent years.

In every case -- whether it involved handbillers distributing adult literature along the Strip, Culinary Union leaders staging demonstrations outside the Venetian or preachers looking for converts at the Fremont Street Experience -- the courts have come down on the side of the First Amendment and the public's right to congregate on the sidewalks.

And yet the casinos and, in this case the Henderson cops, continue to pretend that there have been no such rulings.

Even if a casino owns the property upon which the sidewalk is built, if it is used as a public thoroughfare, it is considered a public forum. Free speech can't be restricted.

That's the law.

There is no better expert on this issue than Allen Lichtenstein, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada, who has persuaded the courts to rule in favor of the First Amendment every time.

On Monday I asked Lichtenstein to meet me at Green Valley Ranch Station and give me his opinion on whether the sidewalk along Carnegie Road is covered under the recent court decisions.

After a quick look around, it took him seconds to conclude, "This is absolutely a public forum."

Something tells me that we haven't heard the last of the sidewalk issue at Green Ranch Ranch Station Casino.

The company's lawyers -- and Henderson police -- might want to do a little brushing up on the law.