Seattle's parade law is unconstitutional

Seattle's parade law is unconstitutional because it gives the police chief broad power to bar protesters from marching in the street, a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled Friday.

The case involves a group protesting police brutality in 2003, as part of a national campaign.

In Friday's ruling, Judge Raymond Fisher wrote that the city's ordinance "vests the Seattle Chief of Police with sweeping authority to determine whether or not a parade may utilize the forum of the streets to broadcast its message. The First Amendment prohibits placing such unfettered discretion in the hands of licensing officials and renders the Parade Ordinance constitutionally defective on its face."

Judge Ronald Gould agreed, while Judge Sandra Ikuta dissented.

The ruling reversed a summary judgment made by Judge Robert Lasnik in the U.S. District Court for Western Washington.

The Seattle affiliate of a national coalition, the October 22nd Coalition to Stop Police Brutality, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation, requested permits in 2002, 2003 and 2004 to march in the streets.

Two of those years, police Chief Gil Kerlikowske issued the permit on the condition that if fewer than 200 people showed up, the group had to use sidewalks and obey traffic signals.

In 2003, the group received a parade permit, without restrictions on group size. At the start of the march, police told the group of 80 to 100 people that they had to march on sidewalks and obey traffic signals.

"The right to march peacefully in the streets has to be treated with respect,"said Doug Honig, spokesman for the ACLU of Washington, which represented the marchers.

The city has not decided whether to rewrite the parade law or appeal, said Suzanne Skinner, director of the civil division in the Seattle City Attorney's Office. "We have to figure it out."

Sharon Pian Chan: 206-464-2958 or schan@seattletimes.com