BoatBanter.com - View Single Post

X ` Man

On 11/1/11 12:50 AM, wrote:
On Mon, 31 Oct 2011 19:14:04 -0700, wrote:

Looks like some judges may still be interested in protecting people's
constitutional rights...

Wonder if that'll filter up to the SCOTUS.

A federal judge Monday afternoon ordered Tennessee to stop enforcing
new rules that restricted “Occupy Nashville” demonstrators’ ability to
protest in response to a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties
Union of Tennessee (ACLU-TN).

“The state cannot arbitrarily create restrictive policies just because
it does not like how people are using a public space,” said ACLU-TN
Legal Director Tricia Herzfeld. “Today’s decision is the first step in
restoring demonstrators’ free speech rights.”

We probably have a better test case going on in Ft Myers. There is a
long standing law against camping in the park and pretty much anywhere
but a designated (zoned) camp ground within the city. You also need a
permit to do much more than visit the park and it closes at night.

It is going to be interesting when they try to make the case that
"camping" is "speech". If the protesters win, the result might be
chilling. It would say that if you have something to gripe about, you
can camp anywhere you want.

It does make me wonder how long these people would last in Lafayette
Park, right outside Obama's front door, in DC.

There are almost always demonstrators and protestors in that area, no
matter who is president. Some of the demonstrators are really wigged
out, though, with signs indicating their displeasure over the Soviet
domination of eastern Europe, even though that's been over for some time.

DC police, for the most part, are pretty tolerant of demonstrators. We
get lots of demonstrations and marches here.