Federal judge orders Chicago to cease enforcing free speech restrictions at Millennium Park

People who want to pass out literature or evangelize in Millennium Park will now be able to do so after a federal judge has temporarily barred the city of Chicago from restricting free speech privileges there.

U.S. District Judge John Robert Blakey granted a preliminary injunction Thursday that allows people to evangelize and campaign in the park.

Blakey called the city’s rules about visitors exercising their First Amendment rights in limited areas of the park “constitutionally flawed in several respects.”

The ruling comes six months after a group of Wheaton College students filed a lawsuit against the city, saying Millennium Park rules unconstitutionally restricted their freedom of speech and their free exercise of religion in a public space.

The city has argued that Millennium Park isn’t a traditional public forum, but in his decision, Blakey shot down that argument, saying the plaintiffs have enough likelihood of succeeding in their lawsuit to warrant an injunction against the city’s rules.

“The Supreme Court expressly recognizes streets, sidewalks, and parks as traditional public forums,” Blakey said in his decision. “Traditional public forums ‘are defined by the objective characteristics of the property,’ and thus remain ‘open for expressive activity regardless of the government’s intent.’ ”

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