A recent court ruling by the 9th U.S. Court of Appeals has ruled in an 8 to 3 decision in favor of freedom of expression as it relates to street performing in public parks in Washington State. This reverses a previous ruling by a three judge panel of the same court.

It now appears that my constitutional rights to freedom of expression were being trampled by the actions of the head of security for the NW Folklife Festival this year. He called two units of the Seattle Police (four officers arrived) to have me escorted off the grounds for entertaining visitors casually as a street performer. He claimed that engaging in a performance art, while under a covered walkway, was not allowed by the Seattle Center rules and that he was enforcing their rules. Given that I had complied to his request to cease my activities and had already packed up my things, I wasn't exactly sure what reasoning he was using for summoning the SPD, except to simply push his weight around.

Today, I asked one of the Seattle Center employees and an officer if they had seen the article about the ruling that came out in the papers on Thursday and what they thought it meant. They said that it meant that I could perform where I wanted to on the grounds. I explained what happened to during Folklife and they were under the impression, that because the event rented the park, they could enact any kind of rules or regulations governing street performers that they saw fit during their event.

Does anyone here have any info regarding whether an event can overturn the court's decision regarding our freedom of expression on public property simply because they are renting the grounds for the weekend?