State is sued over demonstration rules

The American Civil Liberties Union sued the state Thursday, claiming its restrictive policies for demonstrating at the state Capitol violate the First Amendment.

Alexandra Rosenblatt, one of the plaintiff attorneys, said the goal is to get state officials to bring policies in line with the U.S. Constitution and ensure everyone has a fair and equal right to demonstrate at the Capitol — a symbolic location with lots of visibility for getting out political or social messages.

Under state rules, gatherings of more than 25 people on state property require a permit that must be applied for 14 business days in advance.

Demonstrators must also obtain insurance to protect the state from damage or liability, the lawsuit says.

Those rules are unconstitutional because they are overly broad in excluding citizens from state property and interfere with free speech, the ACLU claims.

State law allows the Department of Accounting and General Services to create the rules for using state property. Besides

the state, DAGS and state Comptroller Dean Seki are also named as defendants.

A DAGS spokesman referred all questions about the lawsuit and about policies for gatherings on state property to the state attorney general’s office. An attorney general’s office spokeswoman said the office had not yet been served with the lawsuit.

Rosenblatt said the state will sometimes waive the rules for spontaneous events, but the standards to waive the requirements are not published and remain unknown to the public, raising the concern that officials are granting exceptions based on the message of the speaker.

"That is unconstitutional," she said. "The First Amendment protects your right to free speech regardless of your message."

Rosenblatt said the ACLU alerted DAGS about its unconstitutional policy in 2010.

"(The ACLU has) been trying to work on it for 31/2 years to get the permit requirements changed, so unfortunately we had to file the lawsuit to get compliance with the Constitution," she said.

Pamela Lichty is also a plaintiff in the lawsuit.

Lichty, an ACLU member, is president of the Drug Policy Action Group, an organization that promotes "effective drug policies," the lawsuit says.

According to the lawsuit, the ACLU is planning to hold a rally on drug policy, likely marijuana decriminalization, at the Capitol in January and additional rallies on marijuana decriminalization throughout the 2015 legislative session.

Since legislative hearings may be held on short notice, the ACLU might not have sufficient time to submit a permit application, the suit says.

"Because the ACLU cannot be sure whether DAGS will allow the event to move forward, the ACLU will not be able to publicize the event to its members, the media, and the general public," the lawsuit says.

It adds that providing insurance for the state could make the ACLU responsible for damage caused by the opposition.

Rosenblatt said with international conferences coming to Hawaii, such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which begins Tuesday, protecting First Amendment rights becomes even more vital.

"Every day that goes by, these burdensome rules may be intimidating or preventing people from using state grounds and exercising their constitutional right," Rosenblatt said. "We think that the Constitution mandates that the rules be changed very quickly."