Government entities do have the right to create certain rules and regulations that must be followed. However, it’s illegal for them to set up rules that violate constitutional rights, such as the right to free speech, guaranteed by the First Amendment.
A recent case in nearby Arizona illustrates how this could take place. A woman was with her 10-year-old daughter at a city council meeting. One of the city council members was given a pay raise, and the woman was critical of it. As a result, she was arrested, and she was threatened with jail time and other punishments, such as being removed from her children.
The reason for her arrest was that the city of Surprise, Arizona, had a municipal rule that individuals at city council meetings can’t criticize government officials.
The rule has since been abandoned
However, the woman sued the city and the judge threw out the criminal charges against her. The judge called the allegations “outrageous” and a violation of the woman’s First Amendment rights. Her criminal charges were dropped, and the city abandoned the rule saying that people can’t criticize government officials.
That said, the woman is still moving forward with a lawsuit against the city. She claims that they obviously violated her constitutional rights. This also raises the question of how many other individuals may have been impacted by this illegal rule that city officials had put in place.
Understanding your rights
Just because something is an official rule made by local government officials does not mean that it is legal or constitutional, as this story shows. Those who have faced civil rights violations, such as the violation of their First Amendment right to free speech, need to know exactly what legal steps they can take.