This Article provides a practical examination of public forum law including effective enactment, enforcement and defense of laws, rules and policies regulating First Amendment activity, challenges that are raised against such regulation, and applicable defenses to these challenges. Initially the classes of public fora are considered by defining and distinguishing between each in order to provide a foundation to guide practitioners. The author supports the court created interpretation providing four distinct public forums: traditional, designated, limited and non-public forums, each allowing distinct levels of government regulation. The court created doctrine of government speech is also reviewed to provide a more complete structure of consideration when regulating in this area. These legal standards are examined in their practical environment comparing court decisions made in the context of parks, sidewalks, government buildings and publicly sponsored events. The concepts are finally applied to challenges raised in response to the limiting government action including recent case law controlling retaliation claims against government actions alleged to violate individual First Amendment rights through enforcement actions imposed.