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Newsbrief:
Wisconsin
Weedstock
Wins
Appeals
Court
Victory
7/25/03
Madison's inveterate marijuana
activist Ben Masel has once again proven to be a gadfly that local authorities
would be better off leaving alonw. As Masel announced in a Thursday
e-mail, the Wisconsin 4th Circuit Court of Appeals has thrown out a Sauk
County ordinance used to shut down the 2000 Weedstock festival, declaring
the ordinance unconstitutional.
Masel, who organized similar
festivals throughout the 1990s, refused in 2000 to comply with the Sauk
County ordinance, arguing at the time that it was an unconstitutional infringement
on First Amendment rights of freedom of speech and assembly. Masel
was arrested for his efforts, and Sauk County sheriff's deputies rousted
the 300 to 400 people gathered at the event.
Three years later, the appeals
court has agreed. While it rejected a litany of arguments crafted
by Masel, enough of them stuck to convince the court that Sauk County's
open-air assembly ordinance violated the constitution on its face by requiring
that applications for permits be done far in advance, by barring the promotion
of an event prior to permit approval, and by failing to put any time limit
on the period the county had to process applications. While governments
do have the right to regulate such events, the court ruled, the Sauk County
ordinance did not meet the standard required of regulation that infringes
on First Amendment rights: that such ordinances are "narrowly tailored
to achieve a significant government interest."
Now the case goes back to
circuit court, the Sauk County ordinance goes in the garbage, and maybe
Weedstock can go home to Wisconsin. This year, it will be held in
friendlier territory, across the Canadian border in Ontario, which currently
has no valid laws against marijuana possession.
-- END --
|
Issue #297, 7/25/03
Editorial: Follow the Undercurrents |
Bad Neighbor Policy: Learn All About the Drug War in Latin America through DRCNet's New Book Offer |
Historic Medical Marijuana Vote in House -- Support Rises, But Not Yet Enough |
House Defeats Effort to Divert Colombia Military Aid, Barely |
DRCNet in Action: Grassroots Action on Medical Marijuana and Colombia Votes |
DRCNet Interview: Baldomero Cáceres, Advisor to the Confederation of Peruvian Coca Growers |
Unapproved Vancouver Safe Injection Site Gets Unwanted Police Attention |
Newsbrief: The Opium Files -- Afghanistan at a Record Pace This Year |
Newsbrief: The Opium Files -- In Welsh Fields, the Poppies Grew |
Newsbrief: The Opium Files -- Feds Find Plantation in Midst of California Forest |
Newsbrief: This Week's Corrupt Cops Story |
Newsbrief: Wisconsin Weedstock Wins Appeals Court Victory |
Newsbrief: Australian Safe Injection Room a Success, Say Evaluators |
Newsbrief: Spanish Government Okays Heroin Maintenance in Catalonia |
Newsbrief: Dr. Strangelove, Please Call Home -- Connecticut Scientists Compile Marijuana DNA Database to Track Trafficking |
Newsbrief: Michigan Lawmakers Introduce Anti-Methamphetamine Package, Includes Life in Prison for 1,000 Grams |
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