A federal magistrate judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by Occupy Atlanta protesters against the city of Atlanta.
Occupy Atlanta organizers contended that not being allowed to stay in Woodruff Park past its closing time was “arbitrary and unconstitutional” in the lawsuit, filed Nov. 4 in U.S. District Court. State Sen. Vincent Fort and civil rights leader Joe Beasley were listed as plaintiffs, along with the group and four individual members.
The complaint stated Mayor Kasim Reed’s decision to revoke his own executive order allowing the protesters to remain in the park was unconstitutional.
More than 50 protesters refused to leave the park and were arrested on Oct. 25. Posted rules list 11 p.m. as the park’s closing time.
Reed temporarily allowed the protesters to camp out and remain in the park around the clock, but revoked the order days later, citing public safety concerns. Atlanta police officers circled the park and arrested the protesters through the early morning hours.
Occupy Atlanta contended in its suit that protesters’ First Amendment rights were violated by being forced to leave the park.
The city of Atlanta filed a motion to have the suit dismissed, and U.S. Magistrate Judge Alan Baverman granted the dismissal in his 62-page order and opinion, filed Thursday. The suit was dismissed Friday.
In a prepared statement Friday afternoon, City Attorney Cathy Hampton said, “Atlanta has a longstanding commitment to upholding the rights of people who are lawfully exercising their right to free speech and expression.”
“The court’s ruling affirms that Atlanta’s handling of the Occupy Atlanta demonstrations was consistent with that commitment,” Hampton said.
Jeff Filipovits, one of the attorneys representing Occupy Atlanta in the suit, said in an email Friday night, “Our argument throughout the case was that the City needs to implement a permitting scheme to ensure that parks can safely be used overnight for legitimate purposes, and to ensure that the law is applied equally and fairly to everyone. We never argued that Occupy Atlanta should be able to use the park without limitation.”
“There seems to be nothing preventing this from happening again,” Filipovits said. “The Mayor could grant permission to one group to use a park overnight, but deny that same permission to a different group. The group who was denied permission would have no recourse or ability to appeal.”
Baverman said Reed’s order to close the park “did not apply only to Occupy Atlanta, did not authorize any specific conduct other than being in the park, and did not give Occupy Atlanta any particular rights with respect to the park,” the judge wrote.
Furthermore, Baverman said, Reed was justified in enforcing the park’s closing time due to public safety concerns.
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