The U.S. Supreme Court case Arkansas Educational Television Commission v. Ralph P. Forbes (1997) revolved around the issue of whether a public television broadcaster's exclusion of a third-party candidate from its debate violated the First Amendment rights to free speech and equal protection under law. The court ruled in favor of the Arkansas Educational Television Commission, stating that it did not violate Forbes' constitutional rights by excluding him from a televised political debate because they had made an editorial decision based on journalistic discretion rather than political bias or viewpoint discrimination. The court held that public broadcasters have broad editorial discretion in determining how to fulfill their mandate for educational programming, including decisions about who participates in debates.

In the dissenting opinion for Arkansas Educational Television Commission v. Ralph P. Forbes, Justice Stevens argued that public television stations should be considered a public forum and therefore subject to First Amendment protections of free speech. He disagreed with the majority's view that AETC's decision to exclude Forbes from a televised debate was reasonable and viewpoint neutral, arguing instead that it was discriminatory based on his political views. He also criticized the court for failing to recognize the importance of access to media in modern democratic society, stating that excluding certain voices from this platform could have serious implications for democracy itself.