Still haven't found what we're looking for
In the summer of 2006, Ed and I went to City Hall in search of a permit application. Rumor had it that the insurance requirement was back. After getting bounced from office to office, we were finally given . . .
. . . the old, inaccurate form, with the old, inaccurate instructions inaccurately telling us we needed insurance to express ourselves in the streets.
We figured this would be an easy fix. After all, the Mayor's previous campaign for election endured numerous outrageous free speech violations under the James administration, highlighted in the Academy Award-nominated documentary, Streetfight.
You can't always get what you want
As it turned out, we didn't get the snappy resolution we expected.
Ed spent weeks going back and forth with City of Newark Corporation Counsel Aney Chandy to get the permit forms changed.
To be clear, the language on these forms has real world impact. For example, we were still waiting to hear back from Newark in early September 2006, when we found out that City Hall had refused to process an application to hold a Labor Day event without proof of insurance.
The event sponsors, American Friends Service Committee and the New Jersey Immigration Policy Network, had to abandon plans to march down Broad Street. And this is just one example that we happened to hear about - who knows how many other groups changed or canceled plans because they couldn't get the insurance the city unlawfully required.
Just as we prepared to go back to court, Newark changed the form - finally. We breathed a sigh of relief knowing that the forms wouldn't scare off other citizens wanting to hold rallies or marches.
Same as it ever was
For me, one of the most frustrating parts of my ACLU job is dealing with entrenched bureaucracies. But this is far outweighed by the most gratifying part: helping secure people's fundamental democratic rights. If that ever happens in this case, I'm having a party.
Fast forward to last month's Martin Luther King Jr. Day, when POP had planned a march in Newark. Lo and behold, City Hall gives POP a permit application form, which stated...
. . . that they needed to buy $1 million worth of insurance to hold his march.
As ACLU founder Roger Baldwin said, "No fight for liberty ever stays won."
As Ed said, "You have got to be kidding!"
The waiting is the hardest part
We contacted city again and, at their request, provided the exact language needed on the form: "Insurance is not required for free speech activities such as marches, vigils and protests. If you're engaging in free speech activities but do not have insurance, it will not affect your ability to obtain a permit."
We waited, and nudged, and waited and nudged.
Aney Chandy left her job as Corporation Counsel, with the matter unresolved.
Just like starting over
We sent an intern to City Hall to see if perhaps Aney had the form changed on her way out - a little constitutional "parting gift," we hoped.
Nope. Same old form. Same inaccurate information.
We won't get fooled again
We checked one more time late last week and found the form changed: Instead of saying that insurance is required, it says insurance may be required. Only it doesn't say in what circumstances it may be required, or that it is not required for First Amendment activities.
So someone finally changed the form, but it's still wrong and still likely to deter people from holding an event protected by the First Amendment.
After trying for more than three years for Newark to simply change two lines on a permit form, today we're heading back to court.
We don't want to spend the ACLU or Newark's resources on this. Feel my pain, as a Newark homeowner I'm paying on both ends of this needless chase. Clearly, both parties have bigger fish to fry.
But as long as this unconstitutional barrier to free speech exists, it's the ACLU's job to persist. We've exhausted all other channels - and been exhausted by them - so back to court is our last resort.
Ed and I can't fathom why Newark hasn't simply changed the form and brought personnel up to speed to avoid this litigation. It's disheartening to even have to ponder this.
Whatever the case, the whole thing reminds me of another civil liberties saying: "Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom."
So be it. We're ever vigilant. |
