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A temporary fence must be moved to open more of the building’s plaza, but details of when and how the barrier must be altered had yet to be decided Monday morning.
Updated with additional details from the judge’s ruling and comment from a Eugene resident outside the federal building.
The temporary fencing at the Eugene Federal Building since April 30 must be removed within 48 hours, U.S. District Judge Mustafa Kasubhai ordered Monday, June 22.
The order came at about 3:30 p.m., a few hours after Kasubhai had cited the “long tradition and history” of the site’s courtyard as a place for protest and free expression in granting a request from activists to reopen the full plaza.
Government officials called the barrier a countermeasure after property damage to the building during a protest that was declared a riot by Eugene police Jan. 30. The location of the fence left open a corner section of the plaza often used by speakers during demonstrations.
The ruling, which grants a preliminary injunction, came in response a June 4 lawsuit. Activists alleged the fence restricts rights of assembly and free speech, especially for those with disabilities or mobility impairments.
The order for fence removal came after a lunch recess. While Kasubhai had earlier in the day spoke about allowing the government to adjust the position of the fencing to address security concerns, he ordered removal after government officials could not provide a timeline for how quickly the fence could be reconfigured closer to the building.
“I’m not going to let the First Amendment cool its jets while contracts are being negotiated,” Kasubhai said.
Assistant United States Attorney James Blum, representing the General Services Administration, requested a seven-day stay before enforcement of the order, which Kasubhai denied.
Kasubhai said he did authorize fencing at the site. He presented attorneys with a diagram in which he drew by hand a fenceline stretching mostly alongside the interior wings of the main building.
He also said fencing would be allowed near the annex structure at the site, which until earlier this year housed a Veterans Health Administration site.
Asked by Kasubhai, Blum said the existing fence’s cost was $269,220.
Ryan Anderson, building manager for the Eugene Federal Building, in the evidentiary hearing had talked about plans for a “hardened glazing system” for windows near the interior courtyard lobby entrance. He cited this as another justification for the fence, to allow such work to be done. But he said there was not yet a timeline for the project.
The six activists who filed the lawsuit said the size of the area left open did not accommodate large gatherings, and also that people with mobility issues could no longer access benches or places to sit because they were blocked from doing so by the barrier. They have been represented by Eugene-based Civil Liberties Defense Center.
Kasubhai cited the testimony from six witnesses about recent and long-ago protests, saying the witnesses “convincingly established” that public protest at the site has taken place in both the courtyard area blocked off by the fence as well as the corner section that has remained open.
As during the first day of the evidentiary hearing, the courtroom’s gallery seating was filled with many who have taken part in protests at the site, which opened in the 1970s.
Eugene police declared the riot Jan. 30 after reports of broken windows and a “breach” to the building, though a review of Eugene police video by the city’s police auditor found no evidence of anyone entering the building.
Anderson, the building manager, testified in the courtroom Thursday and also in a written declaration about broken windows and graffiti.
Called to the stand at the request of Kasubhai, he was asked by attorney Marianne Dugan how many windows had been broken after Jan. 30.
Anderson said “approximately three.” He told Kasubhai. “To my knowledge, Jan. 30 was the big event, bigger event.”
The site houses a field office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the protest on Jan. 30 came within days and weeks of the shooting deaths in Minneapolis of U.S. citizens Alex Pretti and Renée Good during federal immigration enforcement activity.
Several government agencies also have offices in the bulding, and Anderson testified there had also been concerns before Jan. 30 raised by an agency, the Veterans Health Administration, about encounters during protests involving veterans coming to the site to receive services. The agency no longer has an office at the Eugene Federal Building.
After the ruling, Cheryl Kelly, 62, said she’s “protested a lot out there” at the downtown site.
“We need to have that space, and we do need to have the sitting space, and there really wasn’t that much violence to really have this fence in the first place,” said Kelly, who said she’s lived in Eugene for 27 years.
“I appreciate that was kind of seen, that most of the history has been positive, peaceful,” she said of the judge’s ruling. She called the Jan. 30 activity “a one-off questionable event.”
Kelly spoke outside the Wayne Lyman Morse United States Courthouse, with others who attended the hearing letting out whoops and cheers as they filed out. More than 30 people sat in the courtroom gallery Monday morning, after about 50 people attended the hearing’s first day Thursday.
“It was important to see that,” Kelly said about the number of people at the hearing.
Lynda Christiansen, an 81-year-old who has lived in Eugene since 1991, was seen affixing flowers to the federal building fence shortly after the ruling on Monday afternoon. She said the flowers represent her joy.
“I’m on cloud nine,” Christiansen said. “I am so happy. We’re getting our city back.”
The granting of a preliminary injunction is not a final order or opinion. A final ruling has yet to be made in the case.
