mightymoose
Moderator
Is anyone monitoring this fiasco in DC about the people dancing at the Jefferson Memorial?
The skinny of it- park regulations prohibit demonstrating at certain locations including the Jefferson Memorial. A woman was arrested for dancing at the memorial (charge ultimately dropped on some procedural technicality) and she sued for violation of 1st and 4th Amendment rights- freedom of expression and unlwful seizure/arrest.
The trial court and appellate court rejected the 1st/4th Amendment claims. The appellate court ruled that dancing meets the definition of demonstrations in the regulation and ruled that the Jefferson Memorial, though a public place, is not a public forum in which a person has a right to demonstrate or be heard- that the regulation has a valid purpose to maintain a certain decorum and conduct within the confines of the memorial.
This past weekend a group decided to protest the court's ruling and danced at the Jefferson Memorial. They were promptly arrested by police, but not before things went nuts and the police had to use a certain amount of force to make the arrests.
A silly law? Perhaps, but the courts ruled it valid.
People are all up in arms about "police brutality" and 1st Amendment freedoms. I have been watching some rather kooky comments from both ends of the spectrum in a couple different forums... I am curious what opinions might come out of a legal forum on this issue.
Anyone care to chime in? Did the court get it right? Was the police action reasonable?
Please review:
The court ruling in Oberwetter v Hilliard
Video from the Jefferson Memorial this past weekend.
The skinny of it- park regulations prohibit demonstrating at certain locations including the Jefferson Memorial. A woman was arrested for dancing at the memorial (charge ultimately dropped on some procedural technicality) and she sued for violation of 1st and 4th Amendment rights- freedom of expression and unlwful seizure/arrest.
The trial court and appellate court rejected the 1st/4th Amendment claims. The appellate court ruled that dancing meets the definition of demonstrations in the regulation and ruled that the Jefferson Memorial, though a public place, is not a public forum in which a person has a right to demonstrate or be heard- that the regulation has a valid purpose to maintain a certain decorum and conduct within the confines of the memorial.
This past weekend a group decided to protest the court's ruling and danced at the Jefferson Memorial. They were promptly arrested by police, but not before things went nuts and the police had to use a certain amount of force to make the arrests.
A silly law? Perhaps, but the courts ruled it valid.
People are all up in arms about "police brutality" and 1st Amendment freedoms. I have been watching some rather kooky comments from both ends of the spectrum in a couple different forums... I am curious what opinions might come out of a legal forum on this issue.
Anyone care to chime in? Did the court get it right? Was the police action reasonable?
Please review:
The court ruling in Oberwetter v Hilliard
Video from the Jefferson Memorial this past weekend.