On March 19 a Los Angeles Superior Court judge struck down the Beverly Hills urgency ordinance limiting assemblies in residential areas. Criminal charges against 25 protesters were dismissed, on grounds that the ordinance was unconstitutional. The city has not yet decided whether it will appeal the ruling.
“In this case a unique circumstance has arisen, the experience of characteristically urban mass protest within a suburban area. Beverly Hills responded with a unique and apparently unprecedented solution: silencing larger groups in public in residential areas at night,” wrote Judge Mark Windham in a nine-page ruling. “Our State Constitution shares principles of free expression with the First Amendment–their application to this unique circumstance yields what could be characterized as ‘a right not to be silenced in a public forum,’ which invalidates the ordinance.”
