Santa Monica attorney Carol Sobel, has filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of Venice Beach Free Speech Zone activists and artists.
According to Sobel, who announced the filing at the junction of Ocean Front Walk and Windward Avenue in Venice last Friday, the lawsuit alleges that the City of Los Angeles’s recently enacted ordinance restricting Venice Boardwalk performers and vendors violates the First Amendment.
Free speech activists, performers, artists, drummers, and tarot readers have opposed the ordinance since it was initially proposed, noting that their first amendment rights have long been protected in the Venice Beach Boardwalk Free Speech Zone under LAMC 42.15.Now, according to the activists, amendments to LAMC 42.15 enacted in December and a new lottery/permit system, which went into effect on March 1, have led to a simultaneous increase in commercial vending and choking off of free speech and artistic freedom on the Venice Boardwalk.
