FAYETTEVILLE -- Anti-abortion picketers have the right to carry signs along a state highway, the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department acknowledged Monday.
That statement came one week after a department employee told participants in an anti-abortion vigil to stop carrying signs along Arkansas 265 in Fayetteville, where the highway is known as Crossover Road. Attorneys for the event, "40 Days for Life," filed a letter of protest. The reply from the Highway Department came Monday afternoon.
The incident did not hurt the event, organizer Sheena Archambault said.
"We're primarily there to pray, and God hears prayers. The signs are for people," she said.
The vigil has been a twice-yearly event in Fayetteville for years. The protests moved to Crossover Road in 2011 when Planned Parenthood opened its health center there. The event's organizers checked with local authorities every year to make sure the event would comply with the latest state laws, Archambault said. Planned Parenthood is a nonprofit reproductive health care provider.
"I have reviewed your letter and at the outset assure you that the [Highway Department] has not attempted and does not intend to suppress the constitutional rights of the volunteers involved in the referenced campaign," said the letter by Rita S. Looney, chief legal counsel for the department. "It appears that the communication from the [department's] district office was misinterpreted and-or misunderstood."
Asked who made the error and what steps, if any, were taken or planned to prevent a recurrence, spokesman Randy Ort of the Highway Department said there would be no further comment.
Local volunteers in the vigil outside Planned Parenthood's location in Fayetteville did not misinterpret or misunderstand, Archambault said. A state Highway Department employee told the vigil participants on Feb. 23 that they could not plant yard signs or carry signs. The picketers agreed to remove yard signs, but asked for written confirmation that they were not allowed to carry signs, Archambault said. The employee returned the following Wednesday, citing sections of state law.
Those sections only apply to permanent signs such as billboards or attachments to utility poles or other authorized structures within the right of way, Looney's letter confirmed. Also, no one can carry signs soliciting donations or offering to sell any item or service, her letter said.
"It is my informed opinion that none of the referenced statutes seek to prohibit First Amendment expression, such as volunteers holding signs which only convey a particular view on 'a matter of public importance,'" Looney's letter said. Looney sent her reply to the Thomas More Society, a nonprofit law firm based in Chicago. The firm represents the national vigil and sent the letter of protest on behalf of the local event organizers.
The event's participants started carrying signs on Crossover Road again Monday afternoon after their attorney advised them of the department's reply, Archambault said. Also, the group had people start carrying signs along Joyce Boulevard during the dispute. Joyce is not a state highway, and the Planned Parenthood health center is at the corner of Crossover and Joyce Boulevard.
A Section on 03/03/2015