FAYETTEVILLE -- Participants in an anti-abortion protest held in the same place, in the same manner and at the same times twice a year since 2011 were told Monday they could no longer carry signs, organizers claim.
The state Highway and Transportation Department has received a faxed letter of protest from a legal firm representing the group, a spokesman confirmed Thursday. The letter alleges the state is violating the group's First Amendment rights to free speech.
The Highway Department is reviewing the complaint, but had no immediate response, said Danny Straessle.
A spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood said the disagreement was between the state and the protesters, and her group had no comment.
The "40 Days for Life" prayer vigil is a nationwide event. Local participants have met twice a year in front of the Planned Parenthood's Fayetteville Health Center at its various locations. Planned Parenthood, a nonprofit reproductive health care provider, moved to 3729 N. Crossover St. in Fayetteville in 2011.
"Every year we ask the police if there's any new laws we need to follow," said local organizer Sheena Archambault. This year's winter vigil began Feb. 18 and was going better than usual, she said. The protesters were able to keep several people, working in shifts, in front of the center about 12 hours a day, she said.
About noon Monday, an employee of the Highway Department, driving a state vehicle, told protesters Crossover Street is a state highway, Arkansas 265, and signs aren't allowed on state highways, Archambault said. The employee told the protesters they weren't allowed to plant their yard signs beside the sidewalk along the highway, she said. The protesters asked for confirmation, and the employee said she would be back.
The employee didn't return until Wednesday, Archambault said. The employee provided copies of state statutes and said the protesters could be fined if they displayed any signs, including signs the protesters were carrying, Archambault said she was told.
On the advice of their attorneys, the organizers had participants stop posting signs after the first notification Monday and haven't resumed. After Wednesday's meeting, participants stopped carrying signs, although the vigil goes on, Archambault said. The vigil participants are wearing T-shirts with anti-abortion protest slogans, but these aren't as effective as signs, she said.
To her knowledge, there was no difference between this most recent protest and its predecessors other than the better-than-usual participation, Archambault said.
The Thomas More Society, a nonprofit law firm based in Chicago, represents the national vigil. The firm faxed a letter to the Highway Department late Wednesday.
"Until this week, the pro-lifers have not encountered any problems with law enforcement during the thousands of hours they have spent on the vigil," the law firm's letter said. The codes cited by the department's employee were Arkansas Code 5-67-101 and 27-67-304, the letter said.
"We respectfully maintain that her directives -- attempting to prohibit First Amendment activity on public property, including sidewalks along a state highway -- were overly broad and, if enforced, they would be a clear violation of our client's First Amendment rights," the letter said.
The attorneys also argue the laws apply only to advertising and to structures such as billboards.
"To apply this section of the code to a small group of individuals, displaying temporary, hand-held signs in furtherance of their First Amendment Rights to communicate their views on a matter of public importance is to stretch it past the breaking point," the letter said.
NW News on 02/27/2015