Editor’s note: On Oct. 3, Judge Nanette Laughrey ordered the city and Salute to Veterans to pay Bill Wickersham and Maureen Doyle more than $198,300 in attorneys fees and nearly $5,000 in other expenses. Meanwhile, the city has chosen not to join Salute to Veterans’ appeal to the 8th Circuit.
COLUMBIA, Mo. — Anti-war protesters will be allowed to distribute leaflets
and carry signs at the city's annual Memorial Day air show after a federal court
ruled in favor of two peace activists in a First Amendment dispute.
U.S. District Judge Nanette Laughrey of Jefferson City ruled
on March 31 that activists Bill Wickersham and Maureen Doyle also have a
constitutional right to wear clothing, hats and buttons expressing viewpoints
not shared by the events organizers, a not-for-profit veterans group.
But protesters won't be allowed to collect signatures on petitions because
that involves communication between petitioners and the public, the judge
ruled.
The ruling follows a preliminary injunction issued by Laughrey last year that
allowed signature-gathering and sign-carrying, but applied only to the 2005
Salute to Veterans Airshow.
"We didn't get everything we wanted, but we're pleased with the decision,"
Wickersham told the Columbia Missourian yesterday. "Its a victory for
First Amendment rights."
Memorial Day Weekend Salute to Veterans Corp. appealed the ruling on April 3
in the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis.
The city of Columbia, the other defendant, also could join the appeal pending
a review by the City Council, said Mayor Darwin Hindman. The air show takes
place at the city-owned Columbia Regional Airport.
Doyle and Wickersham, a peace-studies professor at the University of
Missouri-Columbia, were escorted off the tarmac by city police during the 2004
show for collecting signatures on a green-energy petition and handing out
anti-war leaflets. Wickersham was led away in handcuffs.
The American Civil Liberties Union sued the city and air-show organizers on
behalf of Wickersham and Doyle, arguing that political activists have a right to
free speech at the event, which is free and open to the public.
The veterans group argued that it, too, had a First Amendment right to hold
the air show "without having to turn this traditional family event into a forum
for controversy." The group's attorney, Dale Doerhoff, said organizers of a
University of Missouri pep rally don't have to include University of Kansas
cheerleaders to balance speech at the event.
"We believe in the fundamental right of people to assemble for a shared
purpose without being forced to adopt other purposes," Doerhoff told the
Columbia Daily Tribune on April 3.