Tabberone is pronounced tab ber won
not tay ber own
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Tabberone is pronounced tab ber won |
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Ayres v City of Chicago, 125 F.3d 1010 (7th Cir 1997)
The City of Chicago appeals a preliminary injunction. The injunction forbids the City to invoke its "Peddlers' Ordinance" to prevent Ayres from advocating the legalization of marijuana by selling T-shirts conveying her message at festivals such as the "Taste of Chicago" that the City sponsors in Grant Park. The ordinance forbids the peddling of any merchandise, except newspapers, on either public property (such as Grant Park) or private property, in districts designated by the city council. In 1994, the council designated much of downtown Chicago as a district (the "central district") closed to peddling. The distribution of T-shirts is the principal means by which the group propagates its views, and the sale of T-shirts by the members is a, probably the, principal source of the group's modest revenues. Ayres claims that the enforcement of the ordinance infringes her First Amendment right to freedom of speech. She sought a preliminary injunction so that she and her followers could sell MPAC T-shirts at the 1997 festivals, beginning with the blues festival on June 5. The group peddled its T-shirts at the festivals without incident before the City changed its policy. The district court granted the injunction What is questionable about the Peddlers' Ordinance is not the ordinance itself but rather the size of the district that the city council has designated as a no-peddling zone. It is much of downtown Chicago. It is one thing to ban peddlers, including (for the reasons suggested in the preceding paragraph) "First Amendment" peddlers, from Grant Park; it is another to ban the latter from the surrounding streets as well. The necessity for, and hence the reasonableness of, so extensive a ban is questionable. The injunction was upheld. |
