Dodgeville City Attorney on Political Free Speech Activities

Recall petitions can be circulated on city property. (Dodgeville Chronicle, 12/1/2011)

Excerpt: By law, political free speech activities are generally allowed on public property, although there may be certain areas of public property that may be excluded," wrote Brownlee.

She said as an example, a number of schools and municipalities, through policies or ordinances, prohibit political free speech activities in municipal or school buildings. The City of Dodgeville has no such policy or ordinance.   [Emphasis added.]

"I do not know if the Library has any such policy," wrote Brownlee.

She noted if there were such a prohibition, the prohibition would have to apply to all political free speech activity.

It is also unconstitutional to prohibit "speech" types of activity based on content. Thus, if the City were to prohibit political free speech activities in its buildings, this would apply to any kind of political free speech activity including soliciting signatures on or circulating nomination papers, using City buildings for candidate debates for any type of election, etc, she added.