Lawsuit: Disabled protesters were barred from Capitol lawn event
Paul Egan ,
Detroit Free Press 12:44 p.m. ET Feb. 3, 2017
Disabled protesters file lawsuit,
ada_celebration_7
A small group is kept behind barriers as they protest over various concerns
outside the celebration of 25 years of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
at the Capitol in Lansing on Sept. 17, 2015.(Photo: Rod Sanford, Lansing State
Jour, Rod Sanford | Lansing State Jour)
LANSING — Seven demonstrators -- six of them disabled -- filed a federal
lawsuit Friday against Michigan State Police officers and organizers of a 2015
Americans with Disabilities Act anniversary celebration at the Capitol, where
blind activist Joe Harcz was arrested for obstructing police.
The criminal charge against Harcz
was dismissed last year.
He and the other plaintiffs say their constitutional rights to free speech and
equal protection under the law were violated when they were barred from the
outdoor event, held on the Capitol lawn on Sept. 17, 2015.
"The Michigan State Police and Capitol personnel – having agreed ahead of time
with two non-profit organizations hosting the event … to keep plaintiffs
out – barred (their) entry," the suit alleges. They "wanted to suppress
plaintiffs' speech and prevent them from expressing disagreement with the
messages
advanced by the event's organizers," the suit alleges.
The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids, seeks legal fees and
costs and unspecified damages.
Defendants in the lawsuit are nine Michigan State Police officers, the former
Capitol facilities director, and two non-profit organizations that helped
organize the 25th anniversary ADA event -- the Michigan Association of Centers
for Independent Living and the Capital Area Center for Independent Living.
E-mails to the Michigan State Police and the Michigan Association of Centers
for Independent Living, and a call to the Capital Area Center for Independent
Living were not immediately returned Monday.
Harcz, 64, of Mt. Morris Township, was arrested when he tried to cross a police
barricade to enter the event, after police identified him as a protester
they believed was intent on disrupting it. Harcz, who organizers confirmed was
a member of one of the committees that planned the celebration, was charged
with resisting and obstructing police, a 2-year felony. Minutes before his
trial was scheduled to begin in August, Ingham County prosecutors dismissed
the charge.
"For more than 25 years, I've fought for the Americans with Disabilities Act to
be implemented, and on that very day I was kept out of our very own
celebration,"
Harcz said Friday.
Although the plaintiffs wanted to celebrate the ADA anniversary, they "
harbored serious concerns about several aspects of the event,
including private sponsorship of the event by a company that paid disabled
employees less than minimum wage," and the fact the venue for the event, the
Capitol Building, was itself not fully ADA-compliant, the suit alleges.
The suit includes counts of false arrest, false imprisonment, and malicious
prosecution on behalf of Harcz. But the other plaintiff demonstrators, who were
not arrested, allege their rights were also violated by being kept away from
the ADA celebration.
Protesters Mark Eagle, Terry Eagle, David Robinson, and Joseph Sontag, who are
all legally blind; Eleanor Carter, who uses a wheeled cart to help walk;
and her husband Brian Dian, allege they were deprived of their First Amendment
rights to free speech and their Fourth Amendment rights to equal protection
under the law.
"Literally, the police officers formed a wall with their bodies, later
supplemented by metal barricades, to deny plaintiffs access and prevent them
from
participating in the event," the suit alleges.
At a preliminary hearing in 2015, Lansing District Judge Hugh Clarke, Jr. said
it was reasonable for police to establish a buffer between ADA celebrants
and protesters, and Harcz and the other demonstrators were never told to leave
the Capitol grounds, only to stay in a certain area, a distance from the
ADA celebration.
But Julie Porter, a Chicago attorney representing the plaintiffs, said Harcz
and the other defendants weren't even given a chance to join the event. They
were instead singled out and kept away on the basis of the views that
organizers and police perceived them to espouse. "This was really surprising and
completely wrong," Porter told the Free Press Friday.
Porter points to a 2015
ruling by the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals,
in a case involving Wayne County and a group called Bible Believers. The court
ruled officials violated the rights of Christian evangelists by keeping them
from preaching and handing out leaflets at the Arab International Festival in
Dearborn, which draws significant numbers of Muslims.
The court said "it is easy to understand Dearborn's desire to host a joyous
festival celebrating the city's Arab heritage in an atmosphere of hate and
negative
influences." However, "the answer to disagreeable speech if not violent
retaliation by offended listeners or ratification of the heckler's veto through
threat of arrest by the police."
The ADA, passed in 1990, prohibits discrimination against people with
disabilities in jobs, schools, transportation, and public and private places
that
are open to the public.
"I want to send a message that they cannot continue to suppress the First
Amendment rights of people with disabilities, and no one should be treated the
way they treated us," Canter said Monday.
Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or pegan@xxxxxxxxxxxxx. Follow him on Twitter
@paulegan4.
Source:
http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2017/02/03/lawsuit-disabled-protesters-were-barred-capitol-lawn-event/97408982/