Cleveland City Council has agreed not to enforce many of its rules for public comment while a lawsuit over those rules proceeds in federal court.
Some rules will remain in place. Speakers still must register in advance to speak at its Monday night meetings. They still must limit their remarks to three minutes, and no more than 10 people can speak at a single council meeting.
But gone – for now – are rules prohibiting speakers from electioneering, addressing individual council members or using “indecent or discriminatory language.”
Attorneys for council and plaintiff Chris Martin both agreed to the order, which U.S. District Judge Charles Esque Fleming signed Friday afternoon. It will go into effect Jan. 8, when council returns for the new year.
The order will remain in place until Fleming rules on Martin’s request for an injunction against council’s comment rules. The two parties will submit written arguments over a proposed injunction throughout the month of January.
Martin sued after Council President Blaine Griffin cut off his microphone during a public comment session last year. The Cleveland resident had been listing the names of council members who had received money from the Council Leadership Fund, a political action committee controlled by Griffin.
The First Amendment Clinic at Case Western Reserve University School of Law is representing Martin.
The lawsuit unfolds as a different issue dominates council public comment sessions. For months, commenters have taken to the microphones to urge council to call for a ceasefire in Gaza. Those comments are likely to begin anew on Monday.
Though largely perfunctory affairs, council meetings have long served as a platform for members to voice their displeasure with mayoral administrations. The public wasn’t allowed to speak.
That changed in 2021, when then-Council President Kevin Kelley agreed to hold public comment sessions at the start of Monday night meetings. A citizen-led group had pushed for the change as Kelley was running for mayor.
Late last year, council considered limiting speakers’ remarks to items that council was actively considering. But the body did not act on that idea before the end of the year.
