DALLAS ‘FREE SPEECH’ BAN UNCONSTITUTIONAL, OVERPASSES FOR AMERICA WINS LAWSUIT

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Breitbart:

A free speech ban on overpass roadways in the City of Dallas ended this week when a U.S. District Court ruled it unconstitutional.

 

On Monday, Sept. 21, U.S. District Court Judge David Godbey ruled in favor of the grassroots Overpasses for America (OFA) and named litigant OFA Texas state leader Valerie Villarreal in a lawsuit the group filed last year. The judge awarded the $1.00 per plaintiff damages requested in the legal documents as “recognition of defendant’s violation” of the First Amendment” under City of Dallas ordinance #29244 of city code Chapter 28.

 

“The nominal damages award represents a legal determination that plaintiffs suffered a deprivation of constitutional rights,” the final consent judgment stated. In addition to the total of $2.00 in plaintiff damages, the city will pay approximately $25,000 in plantiffs’ attorneys’ fees. The loss meant the City of Dallas acknowledged its ban on overpass roadway protests was unconstitutional.

 

OFA, which considers itself a non-partisan group, champions constitutionally conservative causes and concerns. In 2014, Breitbart Texas reported that OFA challenged the constitutionality of the Dallas free speech ban in federal court, claiming the city council made it an offense to assemble peaceably on overpasses within the city’s limits beginning March 15, 2014. The city insisted the ban prevented signs from distracting motorists. The City of Dallas threatened violators with possible criminal charges and fines up to $500 for exercising their First Amendment rights, the lawsuit noted.

________

 

Bridges to freedom?

[Valin]

Meanwhile a bit north

 

‘The University Is not an Agency of Law Enforcement’ -- Kansas Court Rebukes School for Suspending Student for Off-Campus Tweets

September 28, 2015

 

Courts are growing increasingly impatient with ham-handed university sexual assault and sexual harassment policies. This week’s judicial victim is the University of Kansas, which expelled a student after claiming that a series of rude and aggressive tweets violated the university’s sexual harassment policy. There was no evidence, however, that the student tweeted from campus grounds, and the university’s policies — by their own terms — applied only to on-campus conduct or conduct at school-sponsored events. The university, however, tried to expand its power by arguing that the Obama administration’s infamous 2011 “Dear Colleague” letter imposed affirmative obligations on the university to regulate students’ off-campus conduct. The court was unimpressed:

 

 

Note the [Dear Colleague] letter does not direct the school to take action off-campus. Instead, the letter clearly advises that the school must take steps to prevent or eliminate a sexually hostile environment. It seems obvious that the only environment the University can control is on campus or at University sponsored or supervised events. After all, the University is not an agency of law enforcement but is rather an institution of learning.

 

 

There is no question that the Obama administration is using the Dear Colleague letter to place immense pressure on universities to police student conduct — to turn them into agencies of law enforcement — but don’t weep for higher education. The Obama administration’s letter is an utterly lawless document — issued without the required rulemaking process. Universities can and should challenge its legality, but they’re so cowed by on-campus radicals that they dare not lift a finger to protect either their own institutions or the innocent students victimized by the Obama administration’s mandated witch-hunts.

 

(Snip)

[Draggingtree]

Mark Steyn on the Death of Free Speech

Posted on October 2, 2015 by The Political Hat

http://politicalhat.com/2015/10/02/mark-steyn-on-the-death-of-free-speech/