Cite as: 523 U. S. 666 (1998)
Opinion of the Court
Justice Kennedy delivered the opinion of the Court.
A state-owned public television broadcaster sponsored a candidate debate from which it excluded an independent candidate with little popular support. The issue before us is whether, by reason of its state ownership, the station had a constitutional obligation to allow every candidate access to the debate. We conclude that, unlike most other public television programs, the candidate debate was subject to constitutional constraints applicable to nonpublic fora under our forum precedents. Even so, the broadcaster's decision to exclude the candidate was a reasonable, viewpoint-neutral exercise of journalistic discretion.
I
Petitioner, the Arkansas Educational Television Commission (AETC), is an Arkansas state agency owning and operating a network of five noncommercial television stations (Arkansas Educational Television Network or AETN). The eight members of AETC are appointed by the Governor for 8-year terms and are removable only for good cause. Ark. Code Ann. §§ 6-3-102(a)(1), (b)(1) (Supp. 1997), § 25-16- 804(b)(1) (1996). AETC members are barred from holding any other state or federal office, with the exception of teach-Stations et al. by E. Barrett Prettyman, Jr., and Robert Corn-Revere; and for the Commission on Presidential Debates by Lewis K. Loss and William H. Briggs, Jr.
Briefs of amici curiae urging affirmance were filed for the American Civil Liberties Union et al. by Marjorie Heins and Steven R. Shapiro; for the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law by Philip Allen Lacovara; for Greens/Green Party USA by John C. Klotz; for Eugene McCarthy et al. by Arthur D. Goldstein; for the Natural Law Party of the United States by Jay B. Marcus; for the Pacific Legal Foundation by Sharon L. Browne and Deborah J. La Fetra; and for Perot '96 by Jamin B. Raskin and R. Clayton Mulford.
Peter Verniero, Attorney General, and Joseph L. Yannotti, Assistant Attorney General, filed a brief for the State of New Jersey as amicus curiae.
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