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Friday, July 30, 2004
Indiana Decisions - 7th Circuit Issues En Banc Decision
John Doe v. City of Lafayette (ND Ind., Judge Sharp)
[A 53-page decision, with the voting split 8-3 (Williams, Rovner and Wood dissenting). The dissent begins on p. 32.]
Before FLAUM, Chief Judge, and POSNER, COFFEY, EASTERBROOK, RIPPLE, MANION, KANNE, ROVNER, DIANE P. WOOD, EVANS and WILLIAMS, Circuit Judges.
RIPPLE, Circuit Judge. In February of 2000, the City of Lafayette, Indiana, issued John Doe, a convicted sex offender, a letter, informing him that he was banned from all public parks under the City’s jurisdiction. In November of 2000, Mr. Doe initiated this action, alleging that the ban violated his rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the Constitution of the United States. The United States District Court for the Northern District of Indiana granted summary judgment to the City. For the reasons set forth in the following opinion, we now affirm the judgment of the district court. * * *Conclusion. For the foregoing reasons, we must reject Mr. Doe’s challenges based on the First and Fourteenth Amendments and affirm the judgment of the district court. AFFIRMED.
WILLIAMS, Circuit Judge, with whom ROVNER and DIANE P. WOOD, Circuit Judges, join in dissenting. John Doe was banned for life from all park property in the City of Lafayette, Indiana—including a golf course, sports stadium, and city pools. As this ban violates Doe’s First Amendment right to freedom of thought by impermissibly punishing him for those thoughts, I respectfully dissent. * * *
Despite our repudiation of the content of his thoughts, the City of Lafayette may not punish Doe for his thinking alone, for without protection from government intrusion into our thoughts, the freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment are virtually meaningless.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on July 30, 2004 11:39 AM
Posted to Indiana Decisions