Milwaukee

From the Article:

The Coalition to March on the Republican National Convention (RNC) and the City of Milwaukee have reached a near last-minute deal on the coalition’s plan to march inside the soft security perimeter and within view of the convention being held at Fiserv Forum.

“We’re very proud to announce that as of 11 a.m. today, we have reached a handshake agreement with the city of Milwaukee that will allow us to march within sight and sound of the Fiserv Forum,” Omar Flores, co-chair of the coalition, said at a press conference Friday afternoon. “A member of the City Attorney’s office will be observing the march at the very front to make sure that things go without a hitch.”

It is the second time this week the coalition has had to change the protest route. After losing a lawsuit over the city’s permitting for public demonstrations earlier this week, coalition leaders said the march would still go forward and announced a new route running through the “soft zone” of the RNC security perimeter. Pedestrians and cyclists are able to pass freely through the “soft zone” but vehicles must go through a security checkpoint.

Following the deal with the city, the new route will still run through the security perimeter and through the “soft zone”, going past the intersection of W. Highland Avenue and N. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, where it will be roughly within a block of Fiserv Forum. The march is scheduled to take off Monday morning from Red Arrow Park.

The coalition sued the city after the city refused to permit a march inside the security zone of the Republican National Convention. With legal representation from the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin (ACLU), the group sued the city in federal court seeking an injunction against the permitting restrictions, arguing they violate the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

U.S. District Court Judge Brett Ludwig did not grant the injunction and said the city’s restrictions meet the standard for “time, place and manner” limitations accepted by the U.S. Supreme Court, in a decision released late Monday.