Higher Society of Indiana v. Tippecanoe County, Indiana

Dist. Ct. did not err in granting plaintiff’s request for issuance of preliminary injunction to enjoin defendant-County from enforcing its policy that required plaintiff to obtain its permission to conduct on Courthouse steps rally to advocate legalized marijuana. Plaintiff demonstrated likelihood of success in instant First Amendment action, where defendant conceded that its policy was not viewpoint neutral, and where plaintiff showed that events held at Courthouse steps were not governmental speech, since defendant lacked editorial control of individual speakers appearing at said events. As such, since events sponsored/allowed by defendant are private speech, defendant’s policy violated First Amendment under state of instant record.