On June 26, the Green Parties of Iowa and Wisconsin jointly filed a federal lawsuit against the city of Davenport, Iowa. The issue is the city’s policy of banning petitioning at its annual street fair, the Bix Street Fest. The ACLU is representing the parties. The case is Bussiere v Davenport, southern district, 3:09-cv-101.
The incident that prompted the lawsuit arose last year, when Green Party volunteers were collecting signatures in Davenport to get Cynthia McKinney on the ballot. The city believes that the organization that sponsors the street festival has a right to curtail First Amendment activity on public streets during that festival. The city lost a similar case in 1999 over the same issue.
Petition signature gathering being denied access to locations for petition signature gathering is a huge problem that occurs all over the country. This is something that makes ballot access way more difficult than it would be otherwise.
The Green Party of the United States is a part of this suit as well.
Iowa City needs to be taught a constitutional lesson again, not surprisingly.
Will they ever learn?