Man claims free speech rights violated at Issaquah Salmon Days
Aug 8, 2011, 8:22 AM | Updated: Oct 10, 2012, 7:28 am
A Snoqualmie man is suing the city of Issaquah saying he wasn’t allowed to hand out religious leaflets to the crowds at Salmon Days.
It’s not that Paul Ascherl was banned from leafletting the festival last October. He claims that he was restricted to a couple of free speech zones set up especially for the event.
In his lawsuit, filed in federal court in Seattle, Ascherl claims the zones were isolated from the crowds, creating “an intolerable burden” on his expression of free speech. He says one zone was too close to a music stage to allow for conversation.
The SeattlePI.com reports Ascherl wants the city ordinance restricting leafletting to so-called “expression areas” declared unconstitutional.
