DES MOINES, Iowa (CN) — A federal judge approved a settlement Tuesday between the Iowa Department of Public Safety and five Iowans who sued the state after they had been banned from “trespassing” on the state Capitol grounds for as long as a year following a protest in support of Black Lives Matter last year that turned violent.
The Capitol grounds ban was initiated by leaders of the Iowa General Assembly following protests near the building in July 2020 in which several protesters were arrested for allegedly assaulting Des Moines police officers. The legislative leaders told Iowa State Patrol officers, who provide Capitol security, to ban individuals believed to have been involved in violent acts.
Seventeen protesters received letters from the Department of Public Safety warning them that any future entry on Capitol complex grounds, during a time frame ranging from six months to one year depending on the individual, “will constitute trespass, a criminal offense.”
Five of those barred from the Capitol grounds — Jalesha Johnson, Louise Bequeaith, Brad Penna, Brandi Ramus and Haley Jo Dikkers — sued the state in Des Moines federal court for violation of their constitutional rights, including their rights of speech and peaceful assembly and their right to petition their state government for redress of grievances.
The plaintiffs, who were represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa, moved to dismiss their complaint after reaching a settlement in which the Capitol security officers agreed to withdraw all written or verbal bans and that those who received the notices “may continue to enter and use the Iowa Capitol complex on the same terms as any other law-abiding member of the public.”
The defendants also agreed to pay the five plaintiffs $5,000 each, their attorneys $45,000, and to refrain from issuing such trespass notices against individuals exercising their First Amendment rights in the future. In addition, it requires that Department of Public Safety officers who patrol the Capitol grounds receive training on the First Amendment.
U.S. District Judge Rebecca Goodgame Ebinger issued an order Tuesday approving the settlement and dismissing the case.
“We are very pleased with this outcome,” Rita Bettis Austen, legal director for the ACLU of Iowa, told reporters Tuesday. “We are grateful to our clients for challenging the constitutionality of these bans” to protect the First Amendment rights of the public at the state Capitol, which she said is “the most important public forum” in Iowa.
She said the ban on these protesters setting foot on the Capitol grounds was an “unprecedented prohibition of vital First Amendment freedoms that were at issue in this case.”
A spokesman for the Iowa Attorney General’s office said in a statement Tuesday the state is "pleased to come to an amicable resolution of the matter.”
In December 2020, Goodgame Ebinger issued a preliminary injunction barring the state from enforcing the ban. The Barack Obama-appointed judge wrote that the plaintiffs demonstrated a likelihood of success on their claims that the bans violate their right to exercise their First Amendment rights in a traditional public forum.
“The bans here preclude all First Amendment conduct in the Capitol and on the Capitol complex grounds,” she wrote. “The bans not only limit plaintiffs’ manner of demonstrating but also affect plaintiffs’ ability to engage in any form of demonstration — indeed any expression at all — at the Capitol and on the Capitol complex grounds. Even with the state’s substantial interest in public safety, the lack of narrow tailoring likely dooms the bans.”
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