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By Kent Larsen
Judge Rules for City, Church in Main Street Case
SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH -- Saying the city's sale and subsequent changes
stripped one block of Salt Lake City's main street of its public status,
U.S. District Court Judge Ted Stewart yesterday rejected the ACLU's
contention that rules prohibiting protest on the plaza are unconstitutional.
Stewart said that in this case "free speech rights do not outweigh private
property rights." The ACLU has already indicated that it will appeal the
decision to the 10th U.S. Circuit Court in Denver.
Judege Stewart said he had avoided the plaza in an effort to maintain
objectivity on the issue. He spent this past weekend reading case law and
affidavits on the case and Tuesday listened to two hours of arguments. He
then took a 15 minute break before returning and reading a lengthy "oral
ruling." "The restrictions are reasonable in light of the purpose for which
the property was purchased," Stewart said.
Legal arguments in the case centered on whether the plaza retained its
status as a thoroughfare, or whether, as private property, its character had
changed. The ACLU's Stephen Clark argued Tuesday that the public could still
pass through the plaza on its sidewalks. "What matters is that there are
still passageways that serve as a public thoroughfare," he said. "There's
one way to get from North to South Temple on Main Street and that's on these
sidewalks through the plaza. That was not happenstance."
But LDS Church attorney Von Keetch noted that even when the street passed
through the plaza, protests there were rare. According to Keetch, Church
records show just eight 'incidents' occurring on Main street in the past 15
years and city records show no petitions for protest there in the past six
years. City attorney Roger Cutler added that alternative protest locations
are available, noting that 2.5 miles of public sidewalks and 433,000 square
feet of space around the church's four-block campus was still available for
protest. "There's no reason why we have to accommodate a free speech forum
when it's so counter to the design and function and purpose of the place. It
would be destructive of the whole scheme to which the city and the church
have agreed."
Source:
Judge Rejects Suit Against Plaza Rules
Salt Lake Tribune 3Jan01 N1
By Rebecca Walsh: Salt Lake Tribune
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