Public Forums and Democracy

Abstract

The notion of public forum doctrine has long been a topic of debate and debate, but the theory of deliberative democracy has also been debated. In this article, we review the arguments in favor of deeming the interactive communicative spaces of social media sites of government officials, both elected and appointed, as spaces in which conversants are protected by the First Amendment — in other words, as public forums. We cite examples of cases on both sides of the argument while supporting the better of the two — the perspective that finds for increasing the possibilities for the democratically important sharing of ideas for the betterment of society.