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As Miami city officials and civil liberties lawyers wrangle
over revisions to the city's ordinance governing public demonstrations,
implementation of the changes has been delayed until after two protests
planned for next month in Miami.
A hoped-for first reading at today's Miami City Commission meeting
has been postponed and is expected to occur no sooner than next week.
City officials have rejected the protesters' request to suspend
enforcement of the ordinance pending its revision. The city insists that
they first apply for a police permit as the existing process mandates. The protesters
have responded with a request for a federal court injunction against
enforcement of the ordinance.
"We are trying to work with them but I don't want to get into the
business of processing permits," Miami City Attorney Alejandro Vilarello
said in an interview. "If the police infringe on their rights, they
should let us know."
Attorneys for groups challenging the ordinance hoped to see it revised in time
for a planned protest at the March 1 meeting of the city's Civilian
Investigative Panel, which is investigating allegations of police
misconduct during protests at November's Free Trade Area of the Americas
ministerial meeting. Panel officials have said they want to close out
their inquiry at that meeting.
The groups also wanted the city ordinance changed in advance of a
protest march in Miami on March 20, the first anniversary of the U.S.
invasion of Iraq.
The protest ordinance is that part of city code that governs the
issuing of parade and protest permits and describes the restrictions
imposed on protests. It became an object of controversy when city
officials, at the behest of Miami Police Chief John Timoney, amended it
last fall in anticipation of the arrival of thousands of protesters for
the FTAA meeting.
Based on Timoney's stated fear that the protests during the trade
conference would turn violent, the amendments added broad definitions of
the terms "parade" and "public assembly," along with 10 limitations on
materials and items that protesters could carry.
But the federal court lawsuit, now before U.S. District Judge
Donald Graham, targets provisions of the code that long predate the FTAA
meeting. The suit claims that the ordinance is an illegal restriction
of First Amendment rights.
The suit was filed Feb. 4 by Lake Worth for Global Justice Inc., an
activist group that participated in the anti-FTAA demonstrations. The
group is represented by Lake Worth lawyer Robert Ross; Andrea Costello,
an attorney with Gainesville-based legal collective Southern Legal
Counsel Inc.; and civil liberties attorney Carol Sobel of Santa Monica,
Calif.
At a Feb. 5 hearing on the suit, Judge Graham expressed doubts
about the constitutionality of the ordinance. Graham granted the city's
request for a 30-day extension to reply to the suit. Assistant City
Attorney Warren Bittner conceded that the suit raised "interesting
issues" that "should be seriously evaluated before embarking on
full-scale litigation."
At Graham's suggestion, Bittner and three other city attorneys met
to discuss the case with Ross and Costello on Feb. 12. At that time, the
lawyers for Lake Worth for Global Justice were presented with a draft
version of the revised ordinance.
But in court documents filed last week, Sobel complains of
inconsistencies between the city attorneys' verbal assurances and the
text of the revisions.
Sobel wrote that the city attorneys assured the protest group that
the ordinance's language governing obstruction of sidewalks and
mandating that permit applicants purchase
liability insurance were never intended to apply to political activity.
But, according to Sobel, the language of the ordinance, even as
revised, fails to comport with those assurances.
Sobel's motion to Graham asks for an injunction against enforcement
of the ordinance. Plaintiffs have requested that the motion be heard
Friday, but no date had been set at deadline for this article.
"Did we reach a consensus? No," Vilarello told the Daily Business
Review. "They are again moving forward without a permit. The proper way
to obtain a permit is not to file a lawsuit."
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