Texas Civil Rights Project Files Complaint to Defend Free Speech
County Judge Tim O’Hare allegedly rules over commissioners court meetings like a despot, tossing out any public speaker who goes a few seconds over the allotted time, disparaging crowds for engaging in moments of silence for dead county-jail inmates, censuring attendees for laughing or clapping …
In response, a coalition of women represented by the Texas Civil Rights Project (TCRP) and Peter B. Steffensen and Thomas S. Leatherbury of the First Amendment Clinic at SMU Dedman School of Law has filed a complaint in federal court.
Their main hangup is the commissioners’ Decorum Policy. Giving the county judge seemingly unlimited discretion, as the coalition argues, has allowed him to violate the First Amendment by throwing out or cutting off numerous public speakers, including the four plaintiffs.
Another local recently kicked out by O’Hare is former state rep Lon Burnam, who recently filed a petition to have O’Hare removed for alleged official misconduct or incompetency for repeatedly booting speakers, including Burnam. A Texas district judge dismissed it, saying in a court filing that Burnam and his lawyers did not prove official misconduct or incompetency. Instead, the judge said that Burnam’s allegations “present a dispute about the lawful scope of meeting control.”
The petition was filed by Fort Worthian Burnam after he was hauled off by sheriff’s deputies for grabbing a hot mic during the public-speaking segment of a recent county commissioners court meeting downtown. Burnam, who represented Tarrant County in the Texas House for 18 years, was booked on a charge of disrupting a meeting or procession, a Class B misdemeanor with a maximum of 180 days in jail, a fine of up to $2,000, or both.
“I have been an outspoken advocate for civil rights for nearly 50 years,” said Reed K. Bilz, a TCRP plaintiff and Fort Worth resident, “and this is the first time I have had my right to speak freely challenged by an arbitrary decorum policy. The policy and consequences of violating it have forced me to alter what I would like to say to the commissioners.”
Pride Fest Down but Not Out
Pride Kel-So (Keller-Southlake) is on the move after Southlake City Council denied the queer festival’s permit application last week.
The official festival will take place on an April Saturday with a concrete date to be determined. The festival’s previous date, Sat, Oct 3, will become the Pride Kel-So Block Party from 2 to 6pm at St. Martin-in-the-Fields Episcopal Church (223 S Pearson Ln, Keller/Southlake, 817-431-2396).
“Scaled down,” said the married couple behind the event, April and Shaina Dreyson, “but not scaled back.”
With a maximum capacity of 999, the block party will offer food trucks, vendors, and a fundraiser for Pride Kel-So and other local LGBTQ+ organizations.
Southlake City Councils’ decision, the organizers said, “may feel like a message of, ‘You don’t belong here,’ but the thing is, we absolutely do, and we are a resilient people who have always fought for our rights throughout history. We’re not going away. We’re pivoting and bringing more joy to the community.”
All the money raised between now and April will go into “making Pride Kel-So bigger, safer, and harder to ignore next time around.”
Construction in Big Bend Underway
The first major wall construction in the Big Bend region has begun.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has started installing panels on Big Bend 1, a 47-mile segment of a 30-foot wall from south of Sierra Blanca to Big Bend Ranch State Park.
“The threat of a border wall in our region is now a reality,” said Clara Bensen, board member with Conserve Big Bend and director of communications for the No Big Bend Wall initiative. “This is heartbreaking, especially for the families who have worked this land for generations.”
In a federal lawsuit filed recently, a coalition of Big Bend groups argued that border wall construction and infrastructure can be fast-tracked only in areas of “high illegal entry.”
That’s not Big Bend, the group argues.
CBP’s “own numbers show the Big Bend Sector has had the fewest apprehensions of any southwest border sector every year for 53 years,” Bensen continues. “Nothing in that record justifies a wall. That is why landowners went to federal court on Monday, and why none of us are going anywhere. Hundreds of us are standing together, and a few steel panels going up doesn’t change that.”
In the coalition’s suit, the collection of landowners and activists asks the court to block construction throughout the region.
Work in Big Bend National Park remains paused until Sep 30. The pause covers only the park, not the rest of the region.
This column reflects the opinions of the editorial board and not the Fort Worth Weekly. To submit a column, please email Editor Anthony Mariani at Anthony@FWWeekly.com. He will gently edit it for clarity and concision.
