Security Guards Need Education on Private Rights

The basic rule for public or quasi-public gatherings is that any member of the public has a right to attend the meeting so long as they conduct themselves in a manner expected of all members of the public in that situation.

For example, in the Miller forum conducted at Central Middle School in Anchorage members of the public were expected to come and listen to Joe Miller speak about his candidacy for Senate. They were also expected to ask questions during and after the event. So long as a newspaper reporter stayed within those boundaries, he could not be considered as trespassing on the event.

If the reporter had tried to take the stage and speak to the audience, he could have been asked to leave. If the reporter had forcibly blocked an entrance preventing people from leaving the building, he could have been asked to move. But attempting to ask a candidate a question the candidate does not wish to answer does not violate any law nor does it give the security guard the right to handcuff the reporter, even if the reporter’s persistence is irritating.

The mere renting of a facility does not give the renter an absolute right to eject a person from the facility as a trespasser just because the person does not agree with or irritates your boss. The security guard misunderstood his rights under the law when he announced to the reporter that the campaign had rented the school, and they had the right to exclude anyone. Rental of the facility gives you certain rights and obligations under the rental contract between you and the owner of the facility. Your obligation to the public that attends the meeting is different from your rights under the rental contract. Your obligation to the public is not dictated by your rental contract and your rental contract cannot withdraw rights from the public that they would otherwise have.

Your rights and obligations to the public are dictated by your invitation. Miller could have sent out invitations to specific individuals to attend his meeting. Only those receiving invitations would be allowed to attend. All others would be trespassers and could be asked to leave. But that is not what happened here.

The campaign through its invitation granted the public the right to attend and participate. The invitation and the methods of announcing the event clearly did not intend to only invite a specific group of individuals. In fact, I assume the more people that attended the event, the happier the campaign would be.

The campaign invited the public to come listen to Joe Miller and ask questions. And to the extent the campaign invited the public to attend, they must treat all members of the public equally, even those that may disagree with the campaign, even reporters.

To do otherwise would illegally tread on individual constitutional rights, rights which I am sure Joe Miller understands.