NY Supreme Court Judge Michael Stallman today issued an order denying a petition for a temporary restraining order prohibiting the city from, inter alia, evicting the OWS protesters from Zuccotti Park and enforcing the park’s owners’ rules.
The court found that the rules – which prohibited, inter alia, “camping and/or the erection of tents or other structures” and the accumulation of garbage and human waste – did not violate the First Amendment, but rather were in the nature of “reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions”.
This is hardly unexpected and, frankly, an important reminder that First Amendment rights are not absolute.
You can read Judge Stallman’s order here:
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