July 4 parade limits and free speech rights

Dale Hudson appears as Uncle Sam in the July 4 parade in downtown Juneau in 2025. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Independent)

By Bruce Botelho

The current controversy triggered by the Juneau Festival Association’s announced policy banning participants seeking to express “political opposition,” carrying “picket signs” or inciting “hateful language” reminds me of the quip that “nothing motivates an American more than being told there are things he can’t say or do.” 

The exchanges on social media have been a very healthy lesson in civic debate over what constitutes free speech and who can impose what limits on its exercise.

Some argue that there is no reason to debate at all: the Juneau Festival Association (JFA) is a private entity, not a governmental agency, and therefore not subject to First Amendment constraints. I take a different view: the JFA has been entrusted by the city to oversee our community’s primary civic celebration, but not as a purely private undertaking. Towards that end, the city has historically funded JFA activities; the parade runs on a city-approved route on closed public streets and sidewalks; and police, fire, and public works are deployed before, during, and after the event. It is unlikely that another group, petitioning for a “Fifth of July” parade permit along the same route, otherwise closed to the public, and requesting the same level of public support would receive it.

These facts suggest that JFA is performing a governmental function and is a “state actor,” bringing with it the constraints imposed on government efforts to restrain speech. In any case, in sponsoring the event on public rights-of-way, it has created a “public forum.” Under these circumstances, JFA cannot exclude entries based on viewpoint (e.g., opposition to particular parties, officials, or policies). It may only impose neutral time, place, manner, and safety rules and bar narrow categories of unprotected speech (true threats and “incitement of imminent lawless action,” for example).

Setting aside the legal arguments, I hope that the JFA might reconsider its well-intentioned policies in light of both long-standing practice in Juneau, which has successfully survived disagreeable speech throughout its history, showing a tolerance for views diametrically opposed to majority thought. That tolerance for disagreement is what is truly celebratory about the Fourth of July and the event it commemorates.

Finally, a word of thanks to all of the volunteers who make up the Juneau Festival Association. Your work provides joy to the thousands who line the parade route every year.

• Bruce Botelho is a former Juneau mayor and Alaska attorney general, and current president of the Juneau Independent’s board of directors. His opinions are personal, not an official stance by the Independent.