DC Public Library Would Require Speech Permits

Ignoring the First Amendment Rights Act of 2004

The ACLU of the National Capital Area informed the General Counsel of the District’s library system that its proposed rulemaking requiring an Metropolitan Police Department permit to give a speech or sermon outside a library was unlawful and must be deleted. Apparently the library's chief lawyer didn’t check the D.C. Code, for if she had, she would have learned that the handiwork of former Councilmember Kathy Patterson, the “First Amendment Rights and Police Standards Act of 2004,” eliminated the requirement for permits.

View the ACLU-NCA letter to the District library's general counsel (PDF).