TRI In The News

Group Urges Perriello to Move Office

From DailyProgress.com
Original article available here.

The Rutherford Institute, an Albemarle County-based civil liberties group, is urging U.S. Rep. Tom Perriello to move his local office someplace where the congressman's critics might more easily protest.

Some of Perriello's conservative opponents -- notably the Jefferson Area Tea Party and the University of Virginia's College Republicans -- have been asked to stop protesting in the parking lot in front of Perriello's district office in the Glass Building in downtown Charlottesville.

The frequently crowded and boisterous rallies by both Perriello supporters and opponents had started to harm the business of a next-door spa and salon called Three Esthetics and Hair Care. As a result, the building's landlord asked the Charlottesville Police Department to tell any protesters to stay off the private parking lot and instead convene on a nearby sidewalk.
John W. Whitehead, president of the Rutherford Institute, said the protest ban infringes on the freedoms of speech, free assembly and the right to petition government.

"The First Amendment clearly guarantees individuals the right to speak out publicly and address their government representatives on the important issues of the day -- that is, the First Amendment guarantees citizens the right 'peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances,'" Whitehead said in a statement. "As an elected official who has taken an oath to 'support and defend the Constitution of the United States,' it is crucial that Congressman Perriello's actions serve to facilitate his constituents in exercising their rights to petition, speak and demonstrate."

Perriello's press secretary, Jessica Barba, said the congressman has no plans to move his district office, partly because he has signed a lease to stay at the Glass Building until January 2011. Perriello, a freshman Democrat, moved the Charlottesville office to the Glass Building away from former Rep. Virgil H. Goode's office on the Downtown Mall because the Glass Building office has far more space for staff and constituents and has easily accessible free parking, she added.
"Congressman Perriello absolutely supports their rights to free speech," Barba said.

Protesters are still able to voice their opinions on the nearby sidewalk, she said. Perriello's office is willing to send staff members to listen to protesters if they want to gather somewhere else, such as the Free Speech Monument on the Downtown Mall. Or, she added, they're welcome to voice their concerns with Perriello and his staffers inside their offices.

"If their goal is to petition us, they can come in anytime and we'll listen to what they have to say," she said.

Whitehead raised his concerns in a letter sent to Perriello on Thursday. Whitehead asked the congressman to relocate his office after his lease expires.

"Although the decision to forbid any demonstrations was made by the landlord of the property, the root of the problem lies in your decision to locate your office in a place where public petitioning and demonstrations may be restricted by those protecting their private property interests," Whitehead wrote. "And, of course, the Rutherford Institute believes as well that private property interests must be protected."

Robert M. O'Neil, director of the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression, said the situation at Perriello's district office is not a clear-cut violation of free speech. On the one hand, he said, speakers are generally entitled to choose the time and place to voice their opinions. On the other hand, speakers may be forbidden from voicing their opinions in such a way that blocks access to public or private buildings.

"Here, there is a genuine risk of both disruption and conceivably denying access of ingress and egress of a property," O'Neil said. "But this situation is very difficult to sort out. There are significant arguments to be made on both sides."

It is unclear, he added, where Perriello could move his office. If a building is not near any businesses that could be disrupted, then it might be less accessible to the general public.

"Relocation might be one solution, but it might also be the start of several other problems," he said.