Federal Injunction returns Protests to the Capitol. Walker Rules provided "extraordinary chilling effect" on Free Speech.

The ACLU just released this victory in the courts, where everything Scott Walker does ends up: 

A federal judge yesterday granted a preliminary injunction in the Capitol free speech case, allowing groups of up to 20 people to gather without a permit inside the Capitol.

“This is huge victory for free speech,” said Larry Dupuis, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin. “The court recognized the Capitol’s unique and historic role as a forum for free speech and public gatherings.”

Michael Kissick, an assistant professor in the UW-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health, sometimes participated in demonstrations inside the Rotunda, including the Solitary Singalong group. Kissick ceased exercising his First Amendment rights in the Capitol in September 2012, when Capitol police began arresting and citing people who exercised free speech inside the Capitol without a permit.

In his 47-page decision, which includes photos and details about the Capitol’s history and architecture, Judge William Conley wrote that the Capitol’s “design was intended to embody… the pursuit of fair and open government informed by an educated, politically involved citizenry and the ‘Wisconsin idea.’”

“The current permitting requirement sweeps in an enormous amount of ordinary activities that are unlikely to present any significant disturbance in the Capitol,” Judge Conley wrote. “The extraordinary chilling effect of permits explains why courts are careful to require that (permits do not) burden small gatherings posing no threat to the safety, order, and accessibility.”

A trial for a permanent injunction is scheduled for the week of January 13, 2014.

The judge noted this important consideration in his decision:

Principal architect George B. Post designed the rotunda to be the center of public interaction among the three branches of state government, the county and city, the University of Wisconsin and the public by constructing four massive wings around it, opening onto four major streets of the City of Madison: 

As specified in the original building program, the Capitol is “in the form a St. Andrew‟s Cross, providing a double axial configuration that welcomes state citizens to walk beneath the four classical porticos and enter the halls of government.”

Indeed, the Nomination argues persuasively that the design was intended to embody Wisconsin’s then-contemporaneous “Progressive” movement, articulated by the state’s governor, Robert M. La Follette, Sr., as the pursuit of fair and open government informed by an educated, politically-involved citizenry and the “Wisconsin idea.” 

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