BOISE, Idaho — Pro-Palestine protestors in Boise have obtained a court ruling against the Idaho Department of Administration with an injunction allowing them to continue their demonstrations on the Capitol Mall.
- The firm representing the protestors, known as People’s Liberated University, argued that state actions violated their First Amendment rights.
- The judge's decision prevents the state from removing tents or seizing property as long as the protests do not impede maintenance or access to state buildings.
- The Idaho Department of Administration declined to comment, citing ongoing litigation.
(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story.)
Since May, protestors against the war in Gaza have been demonstrating on the grass of the Capitol Mall. Now, as we previously reported, the group known as the People’s Liberated University faces a lawsuit filed by the Idaho Department of Administration.
“We filed a counter-lawsuit alleging that the actions of the state police and Department of Administration in seizing the property of the protestors, citing them, and arresting them violated their First Amendment rights,” says Casey Parsons with Wrest Collective, the firm representing the People’s Liberated University in this case.
During the early days of the protests, the group was removed from the steps of the Capitol, according to Casey Parsons with the defense, forcefully.
“This demonstration has been overwhelmingly peaceful. They set up an ongoing demonstration that has been peaceful, oriented towards educating the community and building a space where we can make issues like what’s happening in Palestine visible and apparent to the people of Idaho,” says Parsons.
The tents, according to the defense, are not actually used for camping but as a symbolic representation of tent cities in Palestine.
“There’s a significant amount of legal protection for engaging in around-the-clock tent city protests,” says Parsons.
But the state argues otherwise, saying the demonstrators violate the state’s camping and public land laws, arguing that the protestors have damaged grass, obstructed access and rights of way, and marked sidewalks.
As the courts deliberate the fate of this lawsuit, both the state and the protestors filed competing injunctions. The judge denied the state’s request, ruling in favor of the protestors, preventing the State of Idaho from removing tents or seizing property in the ongoing demonstrations as long as they are not impacting maintenance or blocking access to state buildings.
I reached out to the Department of Administration for a statement, but they declined to comment, citing ongoing litigation.
