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The American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii filed a federal lawsuit against Maui County on Thursday, saying an ordinance placing restrictions on roadway sign-waving is unconstitutional.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Maui residents Chuck Carletta and Mele Stokesberry, who said police threatened to fine them for carrying signs in a Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade in Wailuku in January.
A lawsuit to restore First Amendment rights has been filed against the County of Maui, an American Civil Liberties Union press release states.
It seeks immediate changes to a county law that prohibits roadway and sidewalk sign-waving within 50 feet of a traffic control signal, 20 feet of a pedestrian crosswalk or six feet from the edge of a roadway.
Maui police selectively enforce the ordinance and violate it themselves in sign-waiving activities, the ACLU said in a news release.
Carletta and Stokesberry are members of the group Maui Peace Action, the ACLU said.
“The law at issue is so broad that it effectively prohibits campaign sign-waving, protests, picketing, parades or other demonstrations across large portions of (Maui County’s) three islands,” ACLU of Hawaii senior staff attorney Daniel Gluck said in the news release.
Maui County spokesman Rod Antone said the county had no comment because it had not yet been served with the lawsuit.