MLM Counties News. Notices. Need-to-know Information.
Members of Occupy St. Louis have been protesting in Kiener Plaza since Oct. 1.
After a five-hour hearing, a federal judge said members of Occupy St. Louis did not prove the city of St. Louis selectively enforced its curfew law in an attempt to shut down the protest.
U.S. District Judge Carol E. Jackson, of the St. Louis-based federal court, heard testimony from six plaintiff witnesses before denying the plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction. A ruling for the plaintiffs would have allowed the protesters to “occupy” Kiener Plaza all day and all night until the injunction was made permanent or until a trial were held.
Joseph Welch, one of three lawyers representing the 24 plaintiffs for free, said they would appeal to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Speaking to two reporters outside the Thomas F. Eagleton U.S. Courthouse, Welch said, “Government cannot decide to enforce an ordinance just because they don’t like the message.” The plaintiffs contend the city of St. Louis did just that because at least one homeless protester slept in Kiener Plaza regularly without issue before the Occupy movement set up its encampment there.
Another of the plaintiffs’ lawyers, Cynthia West, was more impassioned in her response. Outside the courtroom, with a voice filled with outrage, West read a statement she prepared: “Can you believe that [Jackson] said the public has no right to occupy public space indefinitely?”
In response to a question about limits on the First Amendment, West said, “I think the time, place and manner restrictions are so restrictive that they’ve taken away our rights completely.”
Eddie Roth, Mayor Francis Slay’s chief performance officer, said outside the courthouse that Jackson’s decision shows that the city’s “deliberate and careful and thoughtful” approach to Occupy St. Louis paid off.
“I think it’s a victory for all of St. Louis — for people who believe in the First Amendment and for people who like the parks,” he said.
The case is Compton et al. v. St. Louis Board of Police Commissioners et al., 4:11-cv-1975.
