GRAHAM, N.C. — Civil rights groups are taking legal action to block the city of Graham from enforcing an ordinance that requires people obtain protest permits from the police chief at least 24 hours beforehand.
On Monday July 6th, the first legal debate will occur in a Greensboro courthouse. A judge will decide on a temporary restraining order that would stop Graham from enforcing its protest permit ordinance until the full hearing can take place.
The Alamance County NAACP and several protesters are named as plaintiffs, represented by The American Civil Liberties Union and Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
The lawsuit names several Graham city leaders as defendants, including the mayor, city manager, mayor pro-tem, city council members, and the police chief. It also names Alamance County's sheriff and county manager.
Here is a link to the Graham ordinance under debate, and images are posted below:
The lawsuit states that Graham's ordinance restricts First Amendment rights to free speech. It states that the NAACP and protesters were not granted permits to hold protests, demonstrations, and prayer vigils. It also challenges states of emergency issued by Graham's mayor, who cited the threat of civil unrest causing damage or injury as the reason they were issued.
On Sunday, WFMY contacted Jay H. Ferguson, and attorney representing Graham and Alamance County's leadership, who declined to comment.
WFMY spoke with attorney Elizabeth Haddix, part of the team representing the NAACP and protesters.
"The First Amendment of our federal constitution, and there is a similar provision in our state constitution, is really what stands between us and totalitarian regime, it's really what makes us American," Haddix said.
"After you've got an unconstitutional requirement to get a permit, the denial just showed us more about what appears to be motivating the chief of police there and the sheriff, and that is a separate but also equally troubling content-based and viewpoint-based discrimination," said Haddix.
On Sunday morning, Graham Mayor Jerry Peterman responded to the lawsuit in a public Facebook post. Several hours later, the post was deleted. WFMY has reached out to the mayor for comment, but we have not heard back yet.
