shouldn’t require a permit.” I cannot link it, because the editorial is not on
the Strib website. I saw it in the dead tree edition over my morning coffee.
The editorial opposes the recent consideration of an ordinance by the Free
Speech Work Group of the Minneapolis City Council. The ordinance under
consideration would require a permit for protests. The position of the Star
Tribune is that the First Amendment of the Constitution makes such abridgement
unconstitutional, and they go so far as to print that particular historic
document in its entirety.
The Free Speech Group was set up by the Minneapolis City Council with the
laudable proclaimed purpose of protecting the rights of protesters.
Unfortunately, the group has apparently had several meetings without any public
notice or any participation by any of the potential protesting groups. When
they found out about last Friday’s meeting (word was apparently leaked), they
came and protested (surprise) that the ordinance was an abridgement of their
rights. An article in the Strib can be found at
http://www.startribune.com/462/story/1352355.html
Meanwhile, Sens. Klobuchar and Coleman have been as good as their word,
plugging away to get that $50 million federal funding for the convention
security. There are a few snags ahead, but both House and Senate versions of
bills including funding are apparently ready for conference committee. The
Strib story can be found at http://www.startribune.com/587/story/1333951.html
Meanwhile, there seems to be trouble with the private fundraising side of
things. Jac Sperling stepped down as head of the Host Committee because of
“business commitments” (presumably that he didn’t know about several months
ago) and was replaced by former St Paul Companies CEO Doug Leatherdale. The
Host Committee is charged with raising $60 million in private funds and was
reported in June as having trouble coming up with the cash. Today’s article
can be found at http://www.startribune.com/587/story/1366791.html
All his leads me to several questions:
1. Does anyone know if the Free Speech Committee of the St Paul City Council
has been meeting and, if so, where their minutes might be found?
2. Does anybody know if there have been any further applications of St Paul’s
recent ordinance requiring permits for demonstrations of more than 25 people?
Has there ever been a court test of that ordinance?
3. Has anyone seen an article describing the fundraising progress by the Host
Committee? I haven’t seen a figure at all; in fact, I remember in June that
there was a press conference saying that they really, really needed more money,
but they refused to say how much they had raised so far.
4. Does anyone know the status of the permit application by the Anti-War
Committee to the St Paul police? I know that it was returned twice (without
any action to approve or not), but I don’t know who has the application now.
5. Has anyone been able to find out the eventual settlements for civil
liberties violations in Seattle, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Miami or New York?
I came across a couple of those and a vaguely remember it being it being some
hundreds of millions. I just can’t find the numbers though, and now lawyer
friends are telling me that I may have to file Freedom of Information forms
with each city to find out that info.