SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (AP) - An activist's Nazi salute during a City Council meeting caused too much disruption, a judge ruled, saying free speech only goes so far in City Hall.
Homeless rights activist Robert Norse filed a federal civil rights lawsuit claiming the city violated his First and Fourth amendment rights by arresting him at a council meeting in March 2002.
But U.S. District Judge Ronald M. Whyte disagreed in a ruling issued last week. The judge said the action was too disruptive for the venue.
"You don't have the same First Amendment rights in a meeting as you do on the street," the city's lawyer George Kovacevich said. "You have the right to attend, but you don't have the right to say whatever you want, whenever you want."
Then-Mayor Christopher Krohn had called an end to public comment during a council meeting and instructed a woman to step away from the microphone. After twice being told to leave the microphone, the woman walked over to Norse, who raised his right arm toward council members in a Nazi salute.
Norse was asked, but refused, to leave and was arrested.
A City Council policy states that people who "interrupt and refuse to keep quiet or take a seat when ordered to do so by the presiding officer or otherwise disrupt the proceedings of the council" may be removed from a meeting.
Norse said he would appeal the judge's decision.
 Attingere · Thu Apr 05, 2007 @ 12:11am · 0 Comments |
