On The Front Lines
Rutherford Institute Calls on Delaware Officials to Respect First Amendment Rights of Occupy Delaware Protesters to Assemble in City Park
WILMINGTON, Del.— The Rutherford Institute is demanding that Wilmington, Delaware officials cease actions calculated to prevent "Occupy Delaware" demonstrators from making continuing use of Peter Spencer Park within the city, asserting that efforts to oust the demonstrators from the park violate the First Amendment's guarantees to freedom of assembly and speech. In a letter to attorneys for the city, Institute attorneys point out that the protesters' use of the park on an ongoing and overnight basis is guaranteed by the assembly, petition and speech clauses of the First Amendment and demand that "threats to arrest these peaceable citizens must immediately cease." Rutherford Institute attorneys informed the city that they are prepared to seek immediate judicial relief if the demonstrators are not allowed to continue their non-disruptive expressive activities.
The Rutherford Institute's letter to the Wilmington City Solicitor is available here.
"The right to peacefully assemble and protest governmental acts are quintessential freedoms protected by the First Amendment," said John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute. "It is clear in this particular case that city officials are denying Occupy Delaware their constitutional rights. We cannot stand for this."
The "Occupy Delaware" movement is an outgrowth of the "Occupy Wall Street" movement that began in September 2011 to protest the power of major banks and multi-national corporations over the democratic process and highlight the role of Wall Street institutions in causing the economic collapse of 2008. Occupy Delaware demonstrators began protesting economic inequality in Wilmington parks, including Peter Spencer Park adjacent to the Redding City-County Building. On Monday, November 7, city officials ordered demonstrators out of the park after they failed to obtain a permit from the city and pay a $200 cleaning charge. The activists said they should not have to pay the fee because they were cleaning the park themselves.
In the letter to city attorneys, Rutherford Institute affiliate attorney Thomas S. Neuberger cites judicial authority establishing parks like Peter Spencer Park as traditional public forums which have been set aside immemorially for the exercise of the rights of assembly and speech guaranteed by the First Amendment. The authority of the government to limit expressive activity in these public forums is "sharply circumscribed"; access to these forums may not be broadly denied and restrictions must be "narrowly tailored to serve a significant government interest and leave open ample alternative channels for communication[.]"
The letter goes on to cite decisions by other courts holding that cities may not impose bans on spontaneous gatherings in parks and on sidewalks without violating the guarantee to freedom of speech and assembly, and that permit fees that are not waivable for indigent persons are unconstitutional. In light of the established rights of the Occupy Delaware demonstrators, the letter demands that unreasonable and unjustified restrictions on the gatherings must cease.
