ACLU joins federal lawsuit regarding Memphis City Hall ‘blacklist’
The American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee will join a federal lawsuit accusing the city of Memphis and its police department of violating the First Amendment rights of political protesters, the organization announced Thursday.
The lawsuit is the first of two filed in U.S. District Court since the city and Memphis Police Department officials declined to answer questions about how the city composed a list of 81 people requiring a police escort in City Hall. The list, which the city made public Feb. 17 in response to an open records request, included the names and descriptions of numerous protesters, among them Mary Stewart, who sued the city after her son, Darrius Stewart, was killed by police in 2015.
The local committee organizing the Fight for $15 campaign to raise the minimum wage for fast-food workers filed the second lawsuit Wednesday. A short time afterward, MPD Director Michael Rallings announced plans to remove 43 names from the list he said were added in error, including all of the protesters, but declined to elaborate on the process that led to the error.
Both lawsuits point to the escort list — called the “security book” by city officials and the “blacklist” by political activists — as proof the city is spying on protesters in violation of a 1978 federal order, or “consent degree,” forbidding the practice. However, the plaintiffs also accuse MPD of a “pattern” of political surveillance going back, in Fight for $15’s case, to 2014. Protesters say they were shadowed, monitored and intimidated by police officers, although the city said the cases are without merit.
“We are not surprised by the ACLU’s interest in this matter in that they were the original plaintiffs in the 1978 consent decree,” Memphis Chief Legal Officer Bruce McMullen said in a statement. “With respect to the current lawsuit, our legal position has not changed.”
The city on Thursday filed its response to the first complaint, denying any political surveillance but also contending the city has no responsibility to provide details about what information was collected on the people on the list.
“The City avers that the specific processes and mechanisms for identification of individuals falling within those parameters, and the processes used or available to be used to provide a safe and secure facility for City business and for City employees, including the Mayor, are and will remain confidential under state law and are not subject to public disclosure,” city attorneys wrote in the response.
The ACLU was party to the lawsuit that resulted in a federal order known as a “consent decree” in 1978 — one of the reasons the organization got involved now, said Thomas H. Castelli, ACLU of Tennessee’s legal director
“This lawsuit asserts that many of the people who were on this list participated in protected free speech activities such as protests and rallies, but have no criminal record or history of causing disturbances at City Hall — which suggests that the city is once again conducting political intelligence actions against its residents,” Castelli said in a statement. “If any surveillance was conducted for the purpose of gathering political intelligence, it would flout the consent decree that’s been in place for nearly four dec-
“We are not surprised by the ACLU’s interest in this matter in that they were the original plaintiffs in the 1978 consent decree.”
ades. Likewise, the creation of a police escort list based on people’s speech, assembly, or associations would clearly chill protected expression, in violation of the First Amendment.”
Bruce Kramer, an attorney in the 1978 case, now representing the four plaintiffs in the lawsuit other than the ACLU, said the ACLU’s entry will almost certainly spell the defeat of the city’s motion earlier this week to dismiss the case. The city argued the plaintiffs didn’t have authority to seek enforcement of the consent decree because they weren’t parties to the original lawsuit — which is not true of the ACLU of Tennessee.
“I’ve been in touch with them since day one — even before that,” Kramer said of the ACLU. “I think it’s wonderful.”
Meanwhile, Black Lives Matter Memphis on Thursday announced it would “address ongoing corruption within local government and demand the resignation of elected officials” in a news conference at noon Friday at 201 Poplar.
Reach Ryan Poe at poe@commercial appeal.com or on Twitter at @ryanpoe.