Velazquez, 531 U.S. at 543.

In sum, the more widely the state opens a forum for members of the public to speak on a variety of subjects and viewpoints, the more vulnerable is the state’s decision selectively to exclude certain speech on the basis of its disfavored content, as such exclusions distort the marketplace of ideas that the state has created in establishing the forum.  Cf.  Velazquez, 531 U.S. at 544 ("Restricting LSC attorneys in advising their clients and in presenting arguments and analyses to the courts distorts the legal system by altering the traditional role of the attorneys in much the same way broadcast systems or student publication networks were changed in the limited forum cases . . . .").  Thus, we believe that where the state designates a forum for expressive activity and opens the forum for speech by the public at large on a wide range of topics, strict scrutiny applies to restrictions that single out for exclusion from the forum particular speech whose content is disfavored.  “Laws designed or intended to suppress or restrict the expression of specific speakers contradict basic First Amendment principles.”  United States v.  Playboy Entm’t Group, Inc., 529 U.S. 803, 812 (2000); see also Denver, 518 U.S. at 782 (Kennedy, J., concurring in the judgment) (noting the flaw in a law that “singles out one sort of speech for vulnerability to private censorship in a context where content-based discrimination is not otherwise permitted").  Compare Forbes, 523 U.S. at 679 (holding that the state does not create a public forum when it “allows selective access for individual speakers rather than general access for a class of speakers”) (emphasis added), with Police Dep’t of the City of Chicago v.  Mosley, 408 U.S. 92, 96 (1972) ("Selective exclusions from a public forum may not be based on content alone, and may not be justified by reference to content alone.”) (emphasis added).

We note further that to the extent that the government creates a public forum expressly designed to facilitate the dissemination of private speech, opens the forum to any member of the public to speak on any virtually any topic, and then selectively targets certain speech for exclusion based on its content, the government is singling out speech in a manner that resembles the discriminatory taxes on the press that the Supreme Court subjected to heightened First Amendment scrutiny in Arkansas Writers’ Project, Inc. v.  Ragland, 481 U.S. 221 (1987), and Minneapolis Star & Tribune Co. v.  Minnesota Commissioner of Revenue, 460 U.S. 575 (1983), which we explain in the margin. 4.  Reasons for Applying Strict Scrutiny

1.  Selective Exclusion From a “Vast Democratic Forum”