Fireworks over leaflets in Taylorsville case
On Friday a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order against Taylorsville, ordering city officials to allow members of the Utah Animal Rights Coalition to talk with residents and hand out leaflets freely outside the confines of a city-created "free speech zone" during the city's "Taylorsville Dayzz" celebration this weekend.
The ruling comes after members of UARC filed a suit in U.S. District Court. The lawsuit claims that a Taylorsville city ordinance and Mayor Russ Wall's executive order creating the zone is unconstitutional and violates their right to voice their views.
Attorney Brian Barnard said city officials placed the free-speech zone near a parking lot and away from the events and crowd traffic.
On April 21, Wall issued an executive order establishing the zone to "assure peaceful protest and protecting citizens' First Amendment rights to free speech."
"The 'free speech zone' created by the Executive Order for 'Taylorsville Dayzz' is distant from the people gathered for the event and is not near any pedestrian traffic route going into or out of the event. The 'free speech zone' is on the opposite side of a large parking lot from the main activities of Taylorsville Dayzz in the park," Barnard wrote in the lawsuit.
Barnard said the First Amendment doesn't presume that people should actively seek speech, but rather people have a right to speak and be heard.
During sworn testimony, two UARC members said they simply approached people and offered a leaflet. If people did not seem interested, they did not pursue their views further. The group was trying to convince people to turn "vegan" in an effort to prevent the cruel treatment of animals.
Members did acknowledge that a few times they handed their literature to children and their parents, warning them that the leaflet contained graphic pictures of a cow with its throat cut and skinned animals.
Stirba argued that such behavior is something Taylorsville did not want to encourage.
Wall testified he felt the zone was in a central "prime spot" among patrons, but acknowledged that he did not contact police when a separate political group began passing out literature of their own.
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