Cite as: 523 U. S. 666 (1998)
Stevens, J., dissenting
the debate forum implicates constitutional concerns of the highest order, as the majority acknowledges. Ante, at 675. Indeed, the planning and management of political debates by state-owned broadcasters raise serious constitutional concerns that are seldom replicated when state-owned television networks engage in other types of programming.17 We have
recognized that "speech concerning public affairs is . . . the essence of self-government." Garrison v. Louisiana, 379 U. S. 64, 74-75 (1964). The First Amendment therefore "has its fullest and most urgent application precisely to the conduct of campaigns for political office." Monitor Patriot Co. v. Roy, 401 U. S. 265, 272 (1971). Surely the Constitution demands at least as much from the government when it takes action that necessarily impacts democratic elections as when local officials issue parade permits.
The reasons that support the need for narrow, objective, and definite standards to guide licensing decisions apply directly to the wholly subjective access decisions made by the staff of AETC.18 The importance of avoiding arbitrary
17 The Court observes that "in most cases, the First Amendment of its own force does not compel public broadcasters to allow third parties access to their programming." Ante, at 675. A rule, such as the one promulgated by the Federal Election Commission, that requires the use of pre-established, objective criteria to identify the candidates who may participate leaves all other programming decisions unaffected. This is not to say that all other programming decisions made by state-owned television networks are immune from attack on constitutional grounds. As long as the State is not itself a "speaker," its decisions, like employment decisions by state agencies and unlike decisions by private actors, must respect the commands of the First Amendment. It is decades of settled jurisprudence that require judicial review of state action that is challenged on First Amendment grounds. See, e. g., Widmar v. Vincent, 454 U. S. 263 (1981); Rosenberger v. Rector and Visitors of Univ. of Va., 515 U. S. 819 (1995).
18 Ironically, it is the standardless character of the decision to exclude Forbes that provides the basis for the Court's conclusion that the debates were a nonpublic forum rather than a limited public forum. The Court
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