Restrictions planned include sign limits, bullhorn bans
By Jennifer Carden
WorldNetDaily.com
St. Petersburg, Fla., officials are sticking with plans to limit free speech at the city’s homosexual festival this weekend after fighting off complaints they are creating unconstitutional “free speech zones.”
Instead, the city will limit some signs and banners to an area “adjacent to the Permitted Street Closure Area.”
The issue is that generally, court opinions have held “free speech zones” do not meet requirements of the First Amendment. Thus, the city is no longer calling the area a “free speech zone,” although the same zoning restrictions will apply.According to a permit for the weekend’s events, anyone who wishes to use “amplified sound and/or hand held signs and banners that extend beyond the torso of the person holding them,” and “signs/banners on sticks, or other rigid objects,” will still be relegated to a designated area “adjacent” to the actual event area.
http://wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=56433