Kristi Noem’s Free-Speech Hypocrisy

Earlier this month, a federal judge ruled that South Dakota governor Kristi Noem violated the First Amendment rights of anti-vaccine-mandate protesters back in November. Last week, Dakota News Now’s Austin Goss reported:

There was just one problem: According to its own guidelines, the South Dakota state government could not restrict protests during the time period that the Blue State Refugees had applied for a permit. The state’s guidelines specified that protest permits could be restricted due to Christmas decorating after Thanksgiving — an already constitutionally dubious measure — but “they told people as early as late October that the Capitol grounds would be unavailable” for protest permits, Alan Gura, the vice president of litigation for the Institute for Free Speech, which represented the plaintiffs in the case, told National Review. “The restrictions applied to Thanksgiving week through New Year’s,” Gura said. And even there, “All it said is that the public areas are reserved inside the Capitol building for activities and events related to the Christmas display. It says nothing about events outside the building, which is where Blue State Refugees wanted to be.”

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Nate Hochman

Nate Hochman was a staff writer at National Review.

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Earlier this month, a federal judge ruled that South Dakota governor Kristi Noem violated the First Amendment rights of anti-vaccine-mandate protesters back in November. Last week, Dakota News Now’s Austin Goss reported:

There was just one problem: According to its own guidelines, the South Dakota state government could not restrict protests during the time period that the Blue State Refugees had applied for a permit. The state’s guidelines specified that protest permits could be restricted due to Christmas decorating after Thanksgiving — an already constitutionally dubious measure — but “they told people as early as late October that the Capitol grounds would be unavailable” for protest permits, Alan Gura, the vice president of litigation for the Institute for Free Speech, which represented the plaintiffs in the case, told National Review. “The restrictions applied to Thanksgiving week through New Year’s,” Gura said. And even there, “All it said is that the public areas are reserved inside the Capitol building for activities and events related to the Christmas display. It says nothing about events outside the building, which is where Blue State Refugees wanted to be.”