According to today’s L.A. Daily Journal, a 9th Circuit Court of Appeal panel has ruled that a district court Judge gave a DHS agent too much deference, and didn’t give enough weight to the first amendment in a case in which government agents forced protestors to stay 150 feet from an immigration checkpoint in Arizona.
The plaintiffs said that Border Patrol agents changed policies, erected barriers around previously accessible areas, and created an ‘enforcement zone’ out of thin air. The defendants contend that the ban was only applicable to people who don’t support the border patrol.
Two members of the public whoa re supportive of the patrol were allowed to stay within the otherwise off-limits area and heckle the protestors for nearly an hour, according to Winslow Taub, a partner at Cowlington & Burling LLP, representing the defendants.
Taub said his firm has worked closely with the ACLU on similar litigation, including a case against former dungeon manager Joe Arpaio.
Judge Milan D. Smith Jr wrote in the opinion that Magistrate Judge Bruce G.MacDonald of the District of Arizona erred in granting summary judgment to HS without allowing both sides to conduct Discovery. Jacobson v. U.S.Department of Homeland Security was used as a precedent.
“You can’t exclude people from a large area based on a general statement about safety of law enforcement needs.” said Taub.
The panel has sent the case back to MacDonald for proper discovery.