{"id":9152,"date":"2019-06-27T16:39:45","date_gmt":"2019-06-27T23:39:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cldc.org\/?p=9152"},"modified":"2020-06-22T13:40:20","modified_gmt":"2020-06-22T20:40:20","slug":"cldc-files-motion-challenging-constitutionality-of-free-speech-plaza-curfew","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cldc.org\/fr\/cldc-files-motion-challenging-constitutionality-of-free-speech-plaza-curfew\/","title":{"rendered":"Le CLDC d\u00e9pose une requ\u00eate contestant la constitutionnalit\u00e9 du couvre-feu de la Place de la libert\u00e9 d'expression."},"content":{"rendered":"

Above: 2013 Monsanto protest in Wayne Morse Free Speech Plaza<\/em><\/p>\n

“The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of any government, and to
\nprotect its free expression should be our first object.”<\/p>\n

\u2013 Thomas Jefferson<\/p>\n

(inscribed at Wayne Morse Free Speech Plaza)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Last Friday the Civil Liberties Defense Center filed a motion challenging the 11:00 p.m.
\n\u2013 6:00 a.m. curfew rule at Wayne Morse Free Speech Plaza. The motion was filed on
\nbehalf of Eric Jackson, a well known local advocate for the houseless.<\/p>\n

Mr. Jackson was arrested at the Free Speech Plaza earlier this year when he was
\nprotesting the apparent criminalization of homelessness by City and County authorities.
\nHe was also protesting the curfew at the Plaza. Mr. Jackson was charged with criminal
\ntrespass in the second degree for his alleged presence at the Plaza in violation of the
\ncurfew.<\/p>\n

The \u201cdemurrer\u201d filed by the CLDC is the first challenge to the constitutionality of the
\ncurfew at the Free Speech Plaza since the current form of the curfew was instituted in
\nSeptember 2013. While the Plaza was formerly home to countless nighttime vigils and
\nprotests of all kinds, since the curfew was instituted, local people have stopped engaging
\nin nighttime protests for fear of arrest. Mr. Jackson has not shied away from risking
\narrest to advance the rights of the most economically disenfranchised.<\/p>\n

This is not the first time the CLDC has challenged attempts by Lane County and the City
\nof Eugene to foreclose free speech activity at the Plaza. As the CLDC\u2019s recent court filing
\nrecounts, previous attempts by the city and county to shut down free speech at the Plaza
\nhave, with few exceptions, been deemed unconstitutional by the local courts.<\/p>\n

In August of 2013, CLDC filed a constitutional challenge that resulted in Alley Valkyrie
\nand with several other activists\u2019 acquittal for violating a closure order of the Plaza after
\nthe Eugene Municipal Court found that \u201c[e]ven under the least strict analysis, the fiveday
\nclosure\u2026was unconstitutional.\u201d<\/p>\n

Later in August, in response to another constitutional challenge brought by the CLDC,
\nthe Court ordered the dismissal of trespassing charges against 15 other protestors
\narrested for violating a previous form of the curfew. In the order, the court noted that
\n\u201cenforcement of a curfew which closes the very area that the County designated \u2018Free
\nSpeech Plaza\u2019 (much of which is barely distinguishable from a sidewalk) for a third of
\nevery day significantly limited Defendants\u2019 right to speech and assembly, regardless of
\nthe curfew\u2019s intent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the court\u2019s rulings, the City and County continue to arrest and threaten people
\nwith arrest if they intend to protest at the Free Speech Plaza between 11:00 p.m. and
\n6:00 a.m. Further, the County has continued its attempts to enclose public space by
\ninstituting identical curfews for the areas adjacent to the Free Speech Plaza and has
\nsuggested further enclosing the area available to people to stand or sit on public
\nsidewalks.<\/p>\n

The City of Eugene also recently passed a law giving private property owners the right to
\ntrespass people from public right of ways\u2014publicly owned lands that are between
\nsidewalks and roads\u2014a clear continuation of the City\u2019s criminalization of homeless
\npeople in Eugene. The areas subject to the new law are generally considered traditional
\npublic fora and, therefore, open to the public to engage in First Amendment activity. In
\npassing the new law, City councilors stated that the new law would not restrict peaceful
\nassemblies. However, it is still too early to determine whether law enforcement will
\nattempt to use this law to limit assembly, particularly assembly that involves the use of
\ntents as a form of expression.<\/p>\n

While the City and County claim that the curfew rule is intended to prevent the side
\neffect of \u201ccamping,\u201d the CLDC argues that a curfew at the Free Speech Plaza is not a
\nconstitutional method of regulating these alleged side effects and those side effects are
\nalready prohibited and vigorously enforced by other laws.<\/p>\n

In the demurrer on behalf of Mr. Jackson, the CLDC argued that \u201cthe City fails to grasp
\nthat it is not protest or other expressive activity that leads to the harms sought to be
\nprevented [by the City\/County]. Rather, it is a lack of housing and shelter, systemic
\neconomic and social inequality, lack of available health care, rising housing costs, lack of
\nbathrooms and trash receptacles, and City and County policies regarding the unhoused
\nthat lead to camping and the associated \u201charms.\u201d<\/p>\n

A trial date for Mr. Jackson has not been set.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Above: 2013 Monsanto protest in Wayne Morse Free Speech Plaza “The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of any government, and to protect its free expression should be our first object.” \u2013 Thomas Jefferson (inscribed at Wayne Morse Free Speech Plaza) Last Friday the Civil Liberties Defense Center filed a motion challenging […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9158,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,48],"tags":[27,65,79],"class_list":["post-9152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-cases","tag-activist-defense","tag-first-amendment","tag-homeless-rights"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cldc.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cldc.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cldc.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cldc.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cldc.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cldc.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9152\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cldc.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cldc.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cldc.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cldc.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}