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ACLU Letter to Miami City Commission Says Proposed Protest Ordinance Effectively "Obliterates the First Amendment"
September 24, 2003
MIAMI ? Saying a proposed City of Miami protest ordinance that "criminalizes objects instead of actions" is an unconstitutional restraint on speech, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Florida today sent a letter to city officials urging them to redraft the ordinance to comply with constitutional free speech protections.
Greater Miami Chapter Lida Rodriguez-Taseff and Legal Director Randall Marshall transmitted a letter to members of the Miami City Commission today in response to a proposed City of Miami Ordinance 54-6.1, entitled "Parade and Assembly Prohibitions." The proposed ordinance essentially "criminalizes objects instead of actions" by banning the use of materials that are widely used to make props for use in protests.
"Holding a sign that says 'McDonald exploits workers for profits' hardly conveys the message as well as a 12-foot tall Ronald McDonald holding large bags of money," wrote the ACLU in the five-page memo to commissioners.
"Materials criminalized by these provisions make it impossible to make such props."
The proposed ordinance also criminalizes the wearing of "any gas mask or similar device designed to filter all air breathed." The ACLU said that ban would include surgical masks and bandanas, among other things.
"Many individuals who engage in protest against free trade do so because of their belief that free trade has a detrimental effect upon the environment," wrote the ACLU. "It is one thing to hold a placard that says 'FTAA harmful to the environment' and quite another to see 50 protesters marching in unison, all wearing gas masks to protest harm to the environment. The masks themselves express more than mere words and the wearing of such masks if fully protected by the First Amendment."
