Mediation fails in ACLU lawsuit over Milwaukee RNC plans for demonstrations

Efforts to resolve a lawsuit against the City of Milwaukee over its plans for demonstrations during next month's Republican National Convention fell apart in a mediation hearing Monday, according to court records.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin sued the city in federal court earlier this month, saying the city's plans for demonstrations during the July 15-18 RNC violate the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

The lawsuit was brought on behalf of the Coalition to March on the RNC 2024 and seeks a determination that the city's "extraordinary event ordinance" for the RNC is unconstitutional. It also seeks a temporary restraining order prohibiting the city from enforcing portions of the ordinance during the RNC.

A hearing scheduled to start at 10:30 a.m. Monday before Magistrate Judge Stephen C. Dries ended mid-afternoon with the parties unable to reach an agreement, according to federal court records.

The case now returns to U.S. District Court Judge Brett H. Ludwig.

"The city refuses to play ball with anyone other than the Republicans," coalition Co-Chair Omar Flores said at a press conference outside the federal courthouse in Milwaukee Monday evening.

He said the group does not plan to try to go past the barriers that are expected to be set up in a "hard" perimeter around the primary RNC venues, rendering the area accessible only to those with credentials.

He declined to detail the reasons the negotiations broke down or the specific route the group is planning to march, citing a confidentiality order Dries issued to the parties Monday.

The inability to reach an agreement comes a month before the RNC begins in downtown Milwaukee.

City spokesperson Jeff Fleming said the mediation process is still "open," but did not comment further on mediation talks. He also said the city still hopes to have march and demonstration sites available to the public as soon as late this week.

"Our goal is to give people a full opportunity to express their First Amendment rights, and we're also interested in making sure all events in and around the convention are safe, so we aim to achieve both of those goals," Fleming said.

Where the city locates demonstration areas and a march route depend on the boundaries of the "hard" perimeter that the U.S. Secret Service is expected to announce in the coming days. That perimeter will surround the three primary convention venues of Fiserv Forum, UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena and the Baird Center.

The lawsuit's demands include that the city have their parade route within “sight and sound” of Fiserv Forum, remove of all “unjustified” time, place and manner restrictions on “First Amendment” activities within the security “footprint” and process all permit applications to use the podium and march routes immediately.

That the city has not announced the RNC demonstration route "deprives the Coalition of the right to seek meaningful judicial review of that decision," case documents state.

The Coalition plans to March the first day of the convention with "an assembly with several speakers at a location within sight and sound of the RNC venues," court documents state. The group’s planned route goes directly next to the convention’s main site, Fiserv Forum.

The lawsuit was filed against the backdrop of an ongoing dispute over a park that had been expected to serve as a protest area.

Pere Marquette Park on the west side of the Milwaukee River and two blocks from Fiserv Forum was long expected to be the site where the city would have a podium for demonstrators.

Leaders of the Coalition to March on the RNC 2024 have argued the park is not close enough to Fiserv Forum, the primary convention site where former President Donald Trump is expected to formally accept the party’s nomination to run for another term in the White House. Members of the media from across the nation and globe are expected in Milwaukee for the event.

Meanwhile, the RNC and top Republicans have pushed to prevent the park from becoming a protest zone, with an attorney saying it would become a “mandated confrontational area” between demonstrators and RNC attendees. The Republican National Committee has sought instead to book the park for its own events during the RNC.

Nearby businesses, too, have rejected the park’s use as a demonstration area.

This story will be updated.

Alison Dirr can be reached at [email protected]. Tristan Hernandez can be reached at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Mediation fails in ACLU suit over Milwaukee's RNC demonstration plan