Erin McCardle and Leatrice Tolls were arrested two years ago, while they were part of the peaceful political protest on Public Square. The city of Cleveland said they needed a permit to stay on the Square past 10 p.m. and they didn’t have one.
The lawyers for McCardle and Tolls -- and an appeals court decision -- maintain that Cleveland’s Public Square has long been "its central hub of free expression” where “a citizen’s right to engage in free expression is at its highest.”
So a city law that shuts it down from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. to all but people authorized by city permit is, they say, unconstitutional.
But the city says its curfew is “content neutral,” and narrowly tailored with decisions based on a significant government interest: namely, safety. The city says its after-hours permits are denied only if a gathering would be unlawful, dangerous or someone else already has reserved the spot.
The Occupy Cleveland lawyers maintain that the public safety argument is shaky: It applies equally to a gathering of one or of thousands, and does not apply to someone walking through the park, nor to even large crowds gathering there during the day – when traffic is busiest, they say.
The city maintains that striking down Cleveland’s law could strike down every park curfew in the state.
