LAFAYETTE – Federal judges, agreeing with an Indianapolis-based pro-marijuana group looking to rally on the Tippecanoe County Courthouse steps, ruled Wednesday that the way county commissioners have controlled use of the courthouse grounds for the past 18 years violates the First Amendment.
In a unanimous ruling, three 7th Circuit Court of Appeals judges upheld a December 2016 injunction that called the county’s policy too restrictive, by essentially requiring anyone to get formal permission to protest or rally outside the iconic courthouse in downtown Lafayette.
Judge Daniel Manion, writing for the three-judge panel in Higher Fellowship v. Tippecanoe County, sounded an empathetic tone, though, to the county’s attempts to defend a 1999 policy born out of an effort to keep a Nativity scene from becoming a permanent fixture each December.
“We understand that the county is in a difficult position,” Manion wrote. “It would like to open the courthouse grounds to some events that it believes add cultural or civic value to the community, yet it doesn’t want to create a public forum for everything under the sun.”
THE INITIAL RULING: Federal judge scoffs at county's policy
NICE TIMING, DUDE: 7th Circuit holds arguments in case on 4/20, better known as Weed Day
THE RETURN: Policy on hold, Higher Fellowship stops by courthouse steps again
Manion even left the door open a crack to the possibility that the county might not have to resort to an all-or-nothing tactic.