State officials cannot remove protesters or their belongings while demonstrating on the capitol mall against Israel’s continuing assault in Palestinian territories according to an Idaho district court judge.
Fourth District Judge Jonathan Medema issued a temporary injunction late last week in favor of the protesting groups Boise to Palestine, Friends of Idaho, BSU Students for Palestine and The People’s University.
Medema also said state police cannot remove protesters’ belongings if they aren’t being cited for illegally camping on the property unless it’s unattended.
“The outcome here protects the First Amendment rights of the people demonstrating at [the People’s Liberated University] and is a significant check on the State's unrestrained harassment of the protestors there,” said Casey Parsons, an attorney for the defendants.
The tent city demonstrations began in May as a way to protest what organizers see as the United States’ complicity in the killing of tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians by Israel. The Palestinian Health Authority reports more than 39,000 people have been killed over the past 10 months.
That’s after Hamas forces killed more than 1,100 people in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, according to Human Rights Watch.
State officials, who oversee several properties on the capitol mall, said protesters were skirting rules that ban camping in the area.
A federal court decision related to Occupy Wall Street spinoff protests in 2011 found the state cannot remove tents used for the demonstrations so long as no one was actually sleeping in them.
Medema denied the state’s request to ban these groups from the capitol annex from 6:30 p.m. to 8 a.m. each day.
“…the ability to protest on a particular day and to have one’s
message heard by whoever happens to be passing by on that particular day, once denied, is something one can never get back,” Medema wrote.
State officials also said constant activity on the property will irreparably harm the area’s grass.
That argument didn’t convince Medema.
“Less than pristine looking lawns is something many Idahoans struggle with during the summer heat and the winter cold and darkness,” he wrote. “Lawns generally recover.”
However, Medema said it’s reasonable for the state to require protesters move tents and other belongings temporarily each week for lawn maintenance.
The Department of Administration declined to comment on the injunction since the litigation remains ongoing.
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