ACLU ponders an appeal
Plaza ruling may be hard to overturn, attorney believes
ACLU of Utah Executive Director Dani Eyer has already said an appeal is definite enough to "set your watch by." But board members still have to go along, and observers agree that U.S. District Judge Dale A. Kimball has rendered a fairly seamless decision.
Local First Amendment attorney Randy Dryer said Kimball's thorough, comprehensive rejection of the ACLU's legal claims makes it unlikely the ACLU can succeed on appeal like it did in the first plaza case. (See accompanying plaza time line.)
"Given Judge Kimball's articulation of his rationale and reasoning, it's going to make it harder to be overturned on appeal," Dryer said. "I think his opinion is going to be upheld."
Others agree Kimball's 82-page, detailed dismissal will stand, since the plaza deal was crafted with a potential ACLU suit in mind.
City Council Chairwoman Jill Remington Love noted the council hired two outside attorneys and carefully consulted with the City Attorney's Office before voting on Mayor Rocky Anderson's Unity Center compromise. In that deal, the city traded its public access easement on Main Street Plaza for 2.1 church-owned acres in Glendale where a multimillion dollar, privately funded community center will be built.
"I ended up voting for the mayor's solution because I thought it would end the legal battle," she said.
LDS Church attorney Alan Sullivan said "the mayor and the City Council complied with the Constitution in all respects" in crafting the Unity Center swap.
The mayor said the second suit was devoid of "any legal merit" and "a very, very different lawsuit than the first one." The appeal must counter a ruling that has rejected the underpinnings of the ACLU's arguments.
Those arguments and Kimball's rejections are:
Argument The ACLU sought a preliminary injunction barring the city's Unity Center solution. The deal caused daily damage to citizen's free speech rights by forbidding expression on the plaza. The injunction would return free speech to the plaza until the plaza case was decided.
Kimball The argument rings hollow for two reasons the ACLU filed its injunction request three months after they filed their lawsuit, and waited five months after the city and church closed the Unity Center deal. If the ACLU was so concerned why did it wait five months?
Speakers are not barred from gaining access to the plaza audience. People entering the plaza, in large part, get there by using public sidewalks. Speakers, therefore, can access the plaza audience by standing on the public sidewalks.
Comments
- Funds for new courthouse approved 1:48 a.m.
- Godfrey vetoes Ogden budget 1:48 a.m.
- Odd Fellows Hall move 1:47 a.m.
- 2 country groups to perform 1:47 a.m.
- Rumor has Boozer with Bulls 1:20 a.m.
- Jazz in back of line for free agents 1:19 a.m.
- Okur signs two-year extension 1:18 a.m.
- Marion to Mavs, Stackhouse to Griz 1:16 a.m.
- Price for redistricting plan challenged 1:04 a.m.
- Basketball campers learn service 1:02 a.m.
- Rumor has Boozer with Bulls
- Stadium of Fire flag burning was fake
- Jazz in back of line for free agents
- Okur signs two-year extension
- Restaurant destroyed by fire
- Jazz won't meet Lopez on Europe trip
- A primer for the 6th Potter film
- Blazers may offer Millsap a contract
- AK will not play for Russia this summer
- MWC, WAC rushed into BCS
- Bronco collecting a galaxy of recruits
138 - Letters: Palin mistreated
136 - Teachers struggle with district cuts
134 - Blazers may offer Millsap a contract
122 - Rumor has Boozer with Bulls
82 - Fairness of BCS debated
81 - Moon landing: Let's hear from you
73 - Chaffetz eyes challenging Bennett
72 - Services bids farewell to Jackson
70 - Letters: Time for a revolution
69
As more and more dads are put out of work in this economy, I've been...
The photographs are mysterious, brooding, dark. They show dimples and...
Blazers get the unbalanced trade they seek while not signing Millsap away...
Ricky Bobby - THE JAZZ DO NOT WANT TO TAKE BACK EQUAL SALARIES. They want to...
Despite the fact that logging has all but stopped in the pacific northwest...
My understanding of what FAIR is trying to do, is to provide well thought out...
Jazz will resign Milsap. If they don't it will be ahuge mistake. First off,...
I was waiting for it to be burned on the big metal structure right by the...
Hey Ute fan... the Utes had a good season. And keep throwing that BCS bowl...
Tyrus Thomas is in the last year of his contract too so what is the point for...
CougarKeith, people don't know how to properly retire the flag, what they did...
It is just talk but since it was brought up: IF we can get Prizbilla &...


You can be the first to comment on this story.