LAFAYETTE – After scrapping restrictions that federal courts ruled were unconstitutional, Tippecanoe County commissioners this week said they are still at least a month away from a new policy covering use of the county courthouse grounds for rallies and events.
But this week, one potential solution surfaced, pulled from the debate that brought the policy that gave commissioners power to pick and choose what events, rallies and protests could be staged on the Tippecanoe County Courthouse steps and grounds.
“Whatever we do, I can’t get it out of my head that the courthouse is the focal point of the community in so many ways,” said Tracy Brown, one of three Tippecanoe County commissioners. “People have been assembling on courthouse lawns for hundreds of years. We just need to figure out how to keep it as open as possible.”
In a June 7 ruling, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a December 2016 injunction that said the courthouse policy, written in 1999, was too restrictive. The court ruled in favor of Higher Fellowship, a pro-marijuana reform group based in Indianapolis that had been denied permission to rally on the courthouse steps.
The county’s denial leaned on a policy that deemed the courthouse a “closed forum.” It read: “Only displays and events sponsored and prepared by a department or office of county government will be allowed in the windows of the Tippecanoe County Office Building or on the grounds of the Tippecanoe County Courthouse. Said displays and events shall be scheduled through the board of Commissioners of the county of Tippecanoe.”
Since Higher Fellowship, helped by the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana, filed its suit, commissioners had worried that a ruling would leave them with an all-or-nothing choice when it came to use of courthouse grounds. But the 7th Circuit’s ruling left room for the commissioners to find rules that would still allow, say, the Round the Fountain Art Fair but still not make courthouse grounds a free-for-all.