My gut reaction is ‘no’ - seems like the ultimate prior restraint on speech. And while it would be for behavior rather than viewpoint or content, there would at least (likely) be a factual issue on whether it was viewpoint or content based.
It would be an interesting thought experiment as to whether reasonable time/place/manner restrictions could include a temporary loss of the ability to speak at a non-traditional forum. If you think about social media - could a person be prohibited from commenting on city posts if they had X violations of the posted rules within a defined time period? But it would seem that any ban would likely have to be temporary and based on violations of clear rules that were known about in advance.
Would seem to be easier to just take the public comments section off the agenda…you aren’t required to have it and it sounds like that’s the item that is opening the door to this person’s shenanigans.
Sent from Matt’s iPhone
On Mar 4, 2025, at 12:51 PM, Jess Kane via Oama <oama@lists.imla.org> wrote:
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div.WordSection1 { page: WordSection1; }Dear OAMA,
My city council wants to keep public comment as a part of its meetings but is plagued by one particular gadfly who abuses the privilege. We all know that a city council meeting is a limited public forum, and the council can put reasonable, content-neutral, time, place and manner restrictions on public comment to facilitate its meetings. Can those restrictions include a ban on comments from a particular person?
As always, I appreciate your time and insights.
Regards,
Jess M. Kane
Attorney at Law
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