DURHAM -- The First Amendment comes up for a hearing today by the Durham City Council.
Citizens Richard Wark and Lee Mortimer claim their free-speech rights were violated at the city-owned Durham Performing Arts Center last November. They plan to ask the council to bring its policies in line with the U.S. Constitution during a work session at 1 p.m.
City Attorney Patrick Baker said the city hasn't had a policy fitting the Wark-Mortimer situation, but he has an idea that he hopes will suit all parties.
A statement says that Wark, Mortimer and two other people were handing out leaflets before a Leonard Cohen concert objecting to a Cohen performance in Israel because of that concert sponsor's connections to "illegal Israeli settlement building on confiscated Palestinian land." The arts center management, according to the statement, told them to move to the Mangum Street sidewalk because their leaflets were upsetting some patrons.
"We do think that the restrictions that were placed on us were totally unreasonable," Mortimer said Wednesday. "This is a public facility, publicly financed facility. Citizens have every right to free speech at a facility like this."
After the incident, they contacted Baker. On Feb. 9 they got Baker's legal opinion that the city may restrict expression in order to keep people moving into and out of the theater, as long as citizens who want to express opinions have "ample opportunity to communicate a message," according to Wark and Mortimer's statement.
"We just haven't had a situation where a lot of protesting [is done] at a particular place in Durham," Baker said Wednesday. Demonstrations that require street closing require a permit, but the Cohen protest was not that big.
Baker said arts center officials have suggested designating two "Approved Flyer/Solicitation Zones," one on Mangum Street at the southeast corner of the center property and the other at the northwest corner - both areas with high pedestrian traffic at show times.
"We are encouraged there's been some movement," Mortimer said. "We're not sure we need to be even that restricted."
Work and Mortimer are on today's agenda at 4 p.m., but the time is subject to change.
