ACLU In A Tizzy Over Free Speech Zone Requirements

Posted on December 10, 2005

The ACLU of the West Central area of Florida has filed a lawsuit against Polk County for what they see as an infringement on the free speech protections of the 1st Amendment. At first glance at this case, you may agree with them until you dig deeper and find out the facts.

At issue is Polk County’s designation of a “Free Speech Zone” where anyone can set up a holiday display or express their free speech in the form of a display. However, in our over litigated world, someone must be held accountable for such displays if they should get dislodged from their placement and injure someone or cause property damage. After all, we are talking about central Florida where high wind storms and hurricanes are plentiful.

The County has required that anyone erecting a display in this “Free Speech Zone” must be able to show proof of $500,000 in liability insurance for the display. Sounds reasonable to me. I mean if you put up a Nativity Scene and a strong wind knocks it over and a portion of it goes through a plate glass window of a residence or business in the community, who is responsible for that? I don’t believe that the County should be responsible for it. After all, the separation of church and state would prevent that wouldn’t it?

This all came about because of an incident which happened last year. A church group erected a Nativity Scene in a park which was followed by several other group erecting displays on the same site. Rather than having the out of control displays, and not wanting to be seen as restricting the free speech of anyone, Polk County decided to permit these displays in a specific area designated a “Free Speech Zone” and require that all liability for the display be taken care of by the organization erecting the display.

The ACLU is taking issue with this on the grounds that not every organization can afford to pay for the liability insurance being required by the County. Let’s take a look at that. How much would a $500,000 liability bond cost for 6 weeks? Maybe $200 – $300? So what they are saying is that an organization wishing to erect a display in the “Free Speech Zone” can afford to build the display but they cannot afford a liability bond? Too damned bad.