The “Holy Shit Permit”, and the first Rainbow Roadblock lawsuit…
THE ‘REGS’…
After over two years of resistance politics in DC and stormy debates everywhere, the ‘Noncommercial Group Use’ permit regulations were finally enacted by the Forest Service on 9/29/1995.
The Shawnee regional gathering in southern Illinois went by peacefully with no hassle that October… the war began at the Florida regional in February 1996:
USFS lawyers filed a huge civil suit against “The Rainbow Family, et al.” in Osceola N.F. – as they had in Texas 1988, upon the same legal fallacy. The Defendant ‘Group’ did not exist; they were suing a phantom of their federal imaginations. Fortunately this time nobody showed up in court in that name… no heavy ruling could proceed, and the lawsuit fizzled. But clearly the Heat was ON.
The July 1996 Rainbow Gathering in Missouri was to be the first big annual event under ‘The Regs’. Aggressive enforcement was anticipated (and in fact was planned by USFS-LEI heavy honchos, it was later learned in discovery). Tensions rose in-prep, rolling into June – but the game suddenly changed when a wayward hippie wizard wandered into the USFS Eastern Region HQ in Milwaukee and signed a permit for the Gathering, approved on 6/20/96. The named holder:
“Divine Composting and Composing Church of the Sacred Rainbow I-Magi-Nation”
It became instantly known as the “Holy Shit Permit” ← {This page has the story & docs.}
Of course gatherers and legal wonks were shocked. This saga unfolded in strange ways over ensuing days – in debates, resentments, consensi, prayers & presentments.
The Fed Cops were flummoxed too… they had expected the gathering to defy the permit, and counted on this to justify proactive enforcement on-site. When this pretext was removed, their tactics shifted.
ROADBLOCKS!…
Instead, intensive interagency roadblocks were imposed on the gathering by USFS Law Enforcement, along with Oregon County Sheriffs and the Missouri Highway Patrol: They set up a mile from Main Gate on the only road to the site, targeting inbound travelers with stops & searches, many citations & some arrests through late-June and early July.
We had seen it before, but never on this scale…
PCU•Free Assembly Project had pulled in the leadwork research, and was instrumental in the legal response that was set in motion during the gathering, and implemented soon after.
Park v. Forest Service, 205 F.3d 1034 (8th Cir. 2000)
[W. Dist. MO, Case No. 96-3288-CV-S-RGC]
In brief sum:::
On 7/23/96 an individual plaintiff Tracie Park filed a new kind of civil rights lawsuit in Federal Court (Western District of Missouri) — alleging police actions to harass, impede, and chill participants in expressive assembly, systematically violating her rights under the First, Fourth & Fourteenth Amendments:
The case wound its way through early proceedings, including detailed Discovery requests and a ‘moratorium’ on such roadblock actions avowed by the Forest Service — until the plaintiff’s attorneys filed a Summary Judgment motion with supporting affidavits in Jan. 1999. Upon this record, the Distict Court in Kansas City granted a strong injunction in June ’99, finding such targeted roadblocks unconstitutional:
The Government asked for “clarification” as to the breadth of this Injunction Order, and the Court amplified its intent in a responsive ruling in August ’99:
• MOrdblk_ClarifnORDER-16au99.pdf
On appeal the Govt challenged the individual plaintiff’s standing for injunctive relief, falsely claiming that her complaint did not establish a likelihood that she would be subjected to such harms in the future. The 8th Circuit bungled the facts and took down the injunction — even acknowledging proof of prior ‘Rainbow Roadblocks’ and continuing violations elsewhere in the country, yet arguing that this did not suffice for permanent injunctive relief. (?!) But the appellate ruling still upheld the District in its declaratory findings that such actions are unconsitutional:
Further docs to be provided:::
The full docket of pleadings & evidence in the civil case, and the appeal memorandums are on-file for reference, available on request… to be uploaded in the near future.
(sca_12my19)