The niceties of real property law were the essentially exclusive focus of justices’ attention yesterday as the U. S. Supreme Court considered the lawfulness of an arrest of a protester near but outside the main gate of Vandenberg Air Force Base on the Pacific Coast Highway. The protester’s lawyer, UC Irvine Law School Dean and leading First Amendment scholar Erwin Chemerinsky, outlined the free speech issues in the case in a law journal Tuesday. But, as noted by Court observer Lyle Denniston in SCOTUSblog, Chemerinsky’s arguments were given short shrift by the justices, who appeared far more interested in the intricacies of easement law, and appeared disposed to rule—at least for the majority—that although the Air Force as owner of the base virtually all the way to the beach, had given the State of California an easement for travel over Highway 1, it retained the right to control speech in that zone in the interests of national security. Cases such as this are examples of what Californians Aware means, in its mission statement, by its reference to “the trends to be overcome,” including “Eroding opportunity: Dwindling space or time for expected and protected speech.”
