Miami Beach Mayor Yells ‘Antisemitism’ in a Crowded Theater

No Other Land documentary co-directors Basel Adra (L) and Yuval Abraham (R) | Photo: CNN

​Last week, Miami Beach Mayor Steven Meiner threatened to terminate a lease agreement between the city and an art house film cinema after it screened the pro-Palestine film, No Other Land (which recently won the Oscar for best documentary).
 
In a newsletter to city residents, Meiner said, "I am a staunch believer in free speech. But normalizing hate and then disseminating antisemitism in a facility owned by the taxpayers of Miami Beach … is unjust to the values of our city and residents and should not be tolerated."
 
Meiner introduced a resolution before the city council to cancel the lease for O Cinema, which rents space from the city, and also terminate roughly $80,000 in grant funding that the city agreed to give the theater. The mayor pulled the resolution when only one commissioner supported it, and five opposed it.
 
We congratulate the mayor and the council for ultimately making the right call.
 
Regardless of whether No Other Land constitutes antisemitism (the film depicts the Palestinian experience in the occupied West Bank), Meiner’s stated intentions run directly into the First Amendment’s prohibition on “Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech.” Supreme Court opinions have long held that the First Amendment applies to government at all levels – federal agencies, states, and yes, city governments.
 
But what happens when government subsidizes speech, as Miami Beach does with its grant to the theater? Government subsidies often lead to the inevitable temptation toward viewpoint discrimination. The issue of restrictions on government-paid speech is one of the thorniest – and most poorly adjudicated issues in First Amendment jurisprudence.

Generally speaking, the government is permitted to “speak for itself” without necessarily being required to do so neutrally. In Rust v. Sullivan, for example, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the government could fund family planning programs while also prohibiting providers from discussing abortions. By contrast, in Legal Services Corp. v. Velasquez, the Court said a government program funding legal representation for indigent parties could not prohibit lawyers from helping those parties challenge welfare laws.
 
Amid these divergent cases, another one seems more on point than others. In Rosenberger v. Rector and Visitors of Univ. of Va, the Court distinguished between government speech and instances in which the government “does not itself speak or subsidize transmittal of a message it favors but instead expends funds to encourage a diversity of views from private speakers.”
 
In other words, when the government acts as patron, it may not prefer one lawfully stated view over another. That would seem to be the case here.
 
Initially, O Cinema CEO Vivian Marthell agree to cancel screenings of the film, noting “concerns of antisemitic rhetoric.” She later changed her mind, and it’s a decision which – agree or disagree with it – we support her right to make. ACLU of Florida legal director Daniel Tilley said, "The government does not get to pick and choose which viewpoints the public is allowed to hear, however controversial some might find them.”
 
That’s correct, but the issue of government speech remains tricky, as is the corollary issue of government subsidies for speech. It would help to get additional clarity on such cases in the future. One thing is clear – the best way to oppose a view you dislike is to speak out, not sue.

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