http://www.pressandguide.com/articles/2012/04/07/news/doc4f7ed7a37129c800438761.txt Judge slaps Dearborn with restraining order in Terry Jones case Published: Saturday, April 07, 2012
Terry Jones is scheduled to speak out on preferential treatment for Muslims at the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn Saturday. The mosque is the largest in North America. (File Photo by Millard Berry/P&G)
View and purchase photos DETROIT — A federal judge sided with Terry Jones Thursday and granted a temporary restraining order against the city of Dearborn.
Calling it “clearly unconstitutional,” U.S. District Judge Denise Page Hood blasted the city’s demand that Jones and his supporters sign a hold-harmless agreement in order to obtain a permit to speak against Islam in front of Dearborn’s Islamic Center of America.
City attorneys had argued previously that the requirement is standard for any special event. Generally, a hold-harmless agreement would absolve the city of liability for anything that happens during a special event with the terms and conditions subject to the legal department’s discretion on a case-by-case basis.
Hood took particular exception to the last part.
“It is well recognized that an ordinance which grants an administrative body or government official unfettered discretion to regulate the licensing of activities protected by the First Amendment is unconstitutional,” she
wrote in her order. Jones, whose presence
nearly led to a riot last time he demonstrated in Dearborn, now will be able to hold his event without the agreement. Jones’ attorneys with the Thomas More Law Center said the city dropped the requirement for the hold-harmless agreement just minutes before Hood filed her opinion.
In published reports, TMLC President Richard Thompson insinuated that by dropping the demand, city attorneys showed that they knew all along that it was unconstitutional.
A message seeking comment from Thompson was not immediately returned.
City attorneys, however, said earlier this week that had Jones gone to the site — a narrow grassy median between Ford Road and Altar Road — without a permit he would have been allowed to protest anyway.
“We were trying to help him by facilitating his event in an area that’s not conducive to pedestrian traffic. That’s the only reason we were looking for this, so we can help him conduct his event,” attorney Laurie Ellerbrake said Tuesday morning.
Continued...
