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Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Ind. Courts - Fort Wayne Airport defends handbill policies in face of lawsuit

Rebecca S. Green has this story today in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette. The long story begins:

A local Army combat veteran wants to hand out copies of the U.S. Constitution and other literature in protest of the federal government’s new airport security screening methods.

But when Paul Anthony Stanton told officials at Fort Wayne International Airport of his intention, he received a copy of new rules spelling out where and when he could conduct his protest – outside the terminal and only after pre-approval.

Such restrictions were unacceptable to Stanton, who, with the help of the ACLU of Indiana, filed a federal lawsuit against the Fort Wayne-Allen County Airport Authority, its board and executive director.

In his lawsuit, filed last week in U.S. District Court in Fort Wayne, Stanton alleges the airport’s new rules, enacted in mid-November, are a violation of the First Amendment of the Constitution, and he wants a federal judge to declare them invalid.

Airport officials said the rules were created as a security measure, necessary to protect the public and airport staff.

In November, after concerns about one group trying to pass out leaflets through the baggage claim doors to workers in the back, officials asked the airport board to enact rules regulating when people can solicit, pass out leaflets or conduct “expressive activities” at the airport, said Craig Williams, director of administration and finance at the airport.

“That’s a major safety and security issue for us,” Williams said. “Our fear is that if it happens unfettered throughout the terminal then people will end up getting themselves potentially hurt and put us at a security risk.”

Here is a copy of the 17-page complaint in Stanton v. Fort Wayne-Allen County Airport Authority. The complaint includes a copy of the airport rules and a diagram of the airport.

The ILB recalls the 1992 SCOTUS decision in Int'l. Society for Krishna Consciousness v. Lee (505 U.S. 672).

Posted by Marcia Oddi on January 26, 2011 10:31 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts