EDITORIAL:Don’t restrict free speech

Every once in awhile, a community is handed an opportunity to weigh in on the 1st Amendment.

At the Aug. 20 City Council meeting, an issue was made of the “flea market atmosphere” caused by the display of sales materials along downtown sidewalks that flank Main Street. Those materials consist of clothing racks and table displays, signage, and other sales racks, including those containing newspapers, leaflets and periodicals.

That the city wants to put forth a proposal that could be restricting to sales, and therefore sales taxes, in the name of aesthetics is one thing. Indeed, it’s almost worth another paragraph or two just to consider how apparently un-mercenary the motion is.

But don’t be confused; whenever the distribution of papers of record is restricted, it’s a 1st Amendment issue. And in this case, Huntington Beach is apparently against that part of the Bill of Rights that states “Congress shall make no law

abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press

”

At the council meeting, City Attorney Jennifer McGrath snuffed an argument to bar the handing out of fliers in the area by bringing up the 1st Amendment.

But about barring news racks, council members were, at best, ambivalent. Yet the suggestion to consolidate them at Pier Plaza was hardly met with enthusiasm, either.

Remember: this is about free speech, an indispensable societal right. It could be argued that moving the news racks to the plaza is the equivalent of setting up “free speech zones.”

Let’s not do that. Restrict the T-shirt racks, sales displays and other detritus of the pedestrian shopping zone if you want; it won’t be the first time. The council voted to tidy up the area in 1923 for the same reasons.

How do we know that?

It was reported in the newspapers, which were freely distributed, and archived.