Third, for Rawls the social spaces within which public reason is exercised are also restricted. The limits of public reason do not apply to personal deliberations and reflections about political questions or “to the reasoning about them by members of associations such as churches and universities, all of which is a vital part of the background culture.” The reasoning of corporate bodies and associations is “public” with respect to its members, “but nonpublic with respect to political society and to citizens generally. Nonpublic reasons comprise the many reasons of civil society and belong to what I have called the ‘background culture,’ in contrast with the public political culture.” The public sphere, for Rawls then, is not located in civil society but in the state and its organizations, including/first and foremost the legal sphere and its institutions.