LAWSUIT CHALLENGES ORDINANCE
A lawsuit challenging Humboldt County’s urgency ordinance was
filed May 24, 2012 by Janelle Egger with the 9th Circuit Federal Court in San
Francisco. Yesterday afternoon Robin Donald visited the Humboldt County
Courthouse and served the summons and Complaint. Both are members of the Occupy Civil
Liberties Working Group.
In her suit, Egger points out that the March 27 ordinance
imposed restrictions on the area in front of the courthouse that is a
traditional public forum where free speech and assembly are constitutional
protected. The suit asks the Court to
declare the ordinance unconstitutional, remove the restrictions from the
Humboldt County Code and monitor the planned enactment of a countywide
ordinance. The court filing fees for the
suit were provided by the Humboldt Civil Liberties Defense Fund.
Along with other demonstrators, she was arrested by Sheriff's
deputies on April 8th for being present on the Courthouse grounds after 9:30
PM. "We can not allow our government to restrict our right to peacefully
exercise our First Amendment rights," says Egger.
The courthouse grounds have been consistently used as a
protest site over the years by such groups as the Veterans for Peace, California
Teacher's Association, the Women in Black, California Nurses Association, the
Tea Party and the Buddhist Peace Fellowship.
“There was not a problem until the County and Eureka Police
Department decided they were going to impose new rules on Occupy Eureka back in
November.” Egger was active with Occupy
Eureka from early November until her arrest.
Since then she has committed her time to restoring First Amendments
rights that were restricted under the urgency ordinance.
Egger, who lives in Fortuna with her husband where they
raised two children, has lived in Humboldt County since 1973.
Occupy Civil Liberties Working Group sponsored the March 24th
Stand Up & Shout Out Forum To Protect and Restore Our First Amendment
Rights.
PACER https://ecf.cand.uscourts.gov/cand/index.html
or at https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B-uTx6HuabZ7M255WldBbjNXLVk
The march 27, 2012 agenda board report is available online at:
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B-uTx6HuabZ7TmE4UmJTdEl2T3c
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