Lake Worth for Global Justice, Inc. v. City of Miami

(S.D. Fla., J. Graham 2004)

This First Amendment case came out of the political demonstrations against the first U.S.-based meetings of the Free Trade Area of the Americas to take place in Miami. Plaintiffs sought, inter alia, a temporary restraining order to prevent enforcement of the City of Miami’s unconstitutional permit laws concerning marches and demonstrations on public sidewalks, streets, and parks, as well as other regulations restricting the size and activities of public assemblies and parades. We represented a human rights organization that wanted to demonstrate while the Miami Civilian Investigative Panel met to investigate police misconduct during the FTAA demonstrations, as well as participate in other demonstrations in the Miami area. The Court ordered the City to have an expedited permit process for all groups seeking to demonstrate and required the City to advise the Court of any denials of permits in order to permit judicial review. In response to the lawsuit, the City repealed two of the challenged ordinances and revised the permit scheme several times to address our constitutional challenges. Co-counsel were Carol A. Sobel and Robert W. Ross, Jr.