Lone Vet Dispatch Joe Walsh v. Enge exclusion injunction: Portland's Mayor Hales crushes activists with increasingly draconian measures
11 days ago
Some of you have asked, “How and what made you go to federal court?”
I was excluded by the mayor, char-LIE-the-hales-Trumpy, on three different occasions and was headed to a permanent banishment. My first experience with the appeals process was the first time I knew the game was fixed. The instructions on the letter for 30 day exclusion was to appeal with the Hearing Officer who works and is paid by the city. I got my paper work in on time and a hearing was set. Before the hearing I submitted a brief to have the mayor and two council members be subpoenaed. At the first meeting the hearing officer agreed that the mayor and two council members should appear. The second hearing/meeting was set up and the mayor and the two council people were a no show but the city attorney sent in one of the assistants, Simon, to submit a motion to dismiss based mostly on mootness. Here’s how this worked, the city would run out the clock and then claim that the question was moot because the 30 days of banishment was over. The hearing officer agreed and the hearing was over----option go to the state court to overturn the hearing officer. I did not like the odds of winning in state court, Barry Joe Stull came up with an idea, go to federal court. I liked that idea. I filed with the court and asked for 3 things: 1st they accept jurisdiction, 2nd they waive all fees, 3rd they let me present the case, pro se, (no lawyer). There are obvious reasons for the first two, the last one was I wanted to keep the question before the court simple:
“Can a local politician circumvent the First Amendment and if he/she can what restrictions are acceptable.” To my utter astonishment, the court granted my petition and said ok to all three of my requests; I was off and running.
The city appointed two lawyers to this case against one old veteran with a mouth and a concept that the Constitution is the law of the land, and the Bill of Rights is the only set of Amendments that keep us safe at night. There was a conference call with Judge Michael Simon and after agreeing to the judge making the decision, we had to submit briefs and there would be oral arguments on the 17th of December. My briefs were short, 6-9 pages, the city’s were small books with lots of cases. After reading many of the city cases, I realized they were not offering any cases that talked about banning a citizen from a public or semi-public hearing. I could find none but thought I just did not know enough to find them. There are none!
The oral arguments were on the 21st of December, 2015 due to a postponement called by the judge. The federal courtrooms are very big, and as I walked passed the bar, my knees began to shake. I looked over and saw my not so friendly Senior Assistant City Attorney David Landrum, (makes $125,000.00 per year) and his colleague Simon busy moving papers around. I asked the clerk if Patty, my wife, could come up and sit with me to help with the paperwork and with the judge’s permission Patty was next to me at the Plaintiff’s Table, that was very cool! The city went first, and afterwards the judge asked them questions and when he got finished my mouth was open because he had asked many of the same questions I was going to present. I gave very civilian arguments about the 1st Amendment and how it is under attack and to rule against a section of it the bar must be very high. We had friends in the court, and that was wonderful to turn around and see familiar faces. When we came out all on our side said, we won. I asked Patty to put the hearing into one word, she said “Awesome.”
Most of you know the rest, Patty got the news over the phone from the court, we had won an injunction against the city and the mayor concerning exclusions.
Article by Maxine Bernstein:
I plan on being on JoAnn’s show this coming Thursday, January 7 at 0800 (AM) with KBOO radio talking about this case and some funny things that happened along the way, please listen and let me know what you think---good or bad!
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