NEW ORLEANS – The city of New Orleans must scale back its plans for a “clean zone” where the use of banners, signs and flags would be restricted during Super Bowl week, a federal judge said Thursday.
U.S. District Judge Kurt Engelhardt’s temporary restraining order says the city can only enforce the limits in an area near the Superdome, where the game will be played Feb. 3. The city had also planned to enforce the rules in the French Quarter and surrounding neighborhoods.
The judge’s ruling comes after the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of an activist and a street preacher. They claimed a new city ordinance and a code enforcement guide trample on their free speech rights and limit their activities leading up to the title game between the Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers.
The ACLU claims New Orleans adopted the new policies at the behest of the National Football League.
“The NFL asked them to do a whole bunch of things, including this,” said ACLU of Louisiana executive director Marjorie Esman.