Camping: A form of free speech, or a city park no-no?

That's one of the questions now in the hands of U.S. District Judge Gary L. Lancaster, who will hear a lawsuit filed yesterday by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights on behalf of six groups who want to voice dissent during the Sept. 24-25 G-20 summit. The complaint against the city of Pittsburgh, the U.S. Secret Service and the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources also asks him to decide how close marchers can get to what will be a heavily guarded David L. Lawrence Convention Center, and to order the issuance of permits for several events that don't yet have the city's OK.

The city is "using security simply as an overbroad justification for denying peoples' rights," said Jules Lobel, the vice president of the Center for Constitutional Rights, who is representing the plaintiffs. "Security cannot be used as a talismanic reason to deny all speech."

The city counters that it has set up two public access zones -- one in a Strip District parking lot a few hundred feet from the convention center, and another just across the Allegheny River -- and is still processing permits in light of the Tuesday announcement by the Secret Service of a Downtown security zone.

"There is more information coming in all the time," said Assistant City Solicitor Yvonne Hilton.

Judge Lancaster, who will hold a hearing Wednesday on the ACLU's request for a temporary restraining order against the city, may find that there are no hard-and-fast guidelines from previous court cases.

"There's no First Amendment ruler out there," said David Rudovsky, a professor of law at the University of Pennsylvania who helped the ACLU wrestle with Philadelphia on behalf of protesters prior to the 2000 Republican National Convention. "There are probably 50 factors that go into this balance" between security and expression.

CodePink Women for Peace and the Three Rivers Climate Convergence want to build tent cities, preferably in Point State Park, to show the plight of refugees and the benefits of sustainability, respectively. They've been told they can't use that state park -- which is why the state is a defendant -- and can't camp out in any city parks.

Plaintiff Bail Out the People, an anti-hunger group, was denied permission to camp in East Park. Another plaintiff, Pittsburgh Outdoor Artists, isn't allowed to camp in South Side Riverfront Park.

"Tent cities are an important protest tactic with a rich historical tradition," according to the complaint.

"Camping isn't speech," said Jesse Choper, the Earl Warren professor of public law at the University of California, Berkeley, Law School and an observer and writer on civil rights for half a century. But if one group is allowed to camp expressively, then the city can't deny others the same, he added.

The city code says there's no camping in parks "except with permission of the [parks] director and only for groups of persons under adequate supervision." It goes on to say that no one can leave "any movable structure" in the parks overnight.

The ACLU, though, said in its complaint that in 2007, the city allowed 200 students to camp out to bring attention to the plight of Ugandan child refugees.

"What the city surely cannot do, is say to Group A, 'You can do it, because you're protesting X,' and then when Group B shows up to protest something else, say no," said Mr. Rudovsky. If the ACLU can only find one prior case of camping, though, its argument might not be as strong as it would be "if every weekend there was another group in there."

Plaintiff the Thomas Merton Center wants to lead a Sept. 25 anti-war march from Oakland to the City-County Building, and then get as close to the convention center as possible. The ACLU said the city hasn't given it any options for an end-point other than the Strip District public access area, which they could reach only by taking a wide detour around the security perimeter.

"They're not approving any demonstrations in the Point or the Golden Triangle," said ACLU of Pennsylvania Legal Director Witold Walczak. "Come on folks, you can't shut down the entire Downtown to protesters."

Plaintiff G 6 Billion Journey and Witness, a religious coalition, wants to march from Downtown's Smithfield United Church to Point State Park or the convention center on Sept. 20 but hasn't been granted a permit. Ms. Hilton said that would soon be granted.

Mr. Choper said governments "can stop people from protesting so it disrupts the event." But demonstrators are "entitled to some place where [they] can effectively communicate ... within sight" of the targets of their message. Rules that aim to keep demonstrators from embarrassing their host city or guests have been struck down, he said.

The city argues that it needs Point State Park for the Junior Great Race on Sept. 20, and the Great Race on Sept. 27, which take days to set up and tear down. But the lawsuit notes that a Sept. 23 event in Point State Park, by the Alliance for Climate Protection and backed by state Sen. Jim Ferlo and possibly attended by former Vice President Al Gore, will apparently be allowed to proceed.

"Something's starting to smell a little fishy to us," said Mr. Walczak, adding that it appears the city is favoring the politically connected over local groups with more strident views.

"I am joining the lawsuit and working to ensure everyone's right for marches, encampments, overnight use of public parks with amenities, marching to the federal building [and] other events," said Mr. Ferlo in an e-mail.

Before Wednesday's hearing, the plaintiffs hope to depose city Special Events Coordinator Nadine Brnilovich, get information from the Police Bureau on any intended law enforcement uses of Point State Park, and get Parks Department clarification of the Great Race set-up schedule.

The city will ask for more information on groups' camping plans and arrangements for sanitary facilities and clean-up following the summit.

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