Electioneering lawsuit continues

An attorney representing the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee has asked a federal judge to block the Coeur d’Alene School District from prohibiting political activity on school property during elections.

Jeremy Ray Morris, representing the KCRCC in its ongoing lawsuit against the school district, filed a preliminary injunction earlier this month.

If granted, the injunction would prevent the school district from prohibiting electioneering on school property while the larger case advances.

The lawsuit alleges that the school district removed a demonstrator from Hayden Meadows Elementary School on Nov. 3, 2020, for passing out sample ballots on school premises.

The demonstrator, identified in the suit as Brigadier General Bob Brooke, was reportedly asked to move from the parking lot to a grassy area nearby, where he continued to engage in electioneering activities.

Morris filed the lawsuit in March on behalf of the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee, as well as KCRCC election chair Jeff Tyler and Bob Brooke, seeking $17,760 in damages.

Idaho Code 18-2318 states that, on the day of any election, no person may do any electioneering within 100 feet of any building in which an election is being held.

Individuals are further prohibited from obstructing or preventing free access to and from any polling place.

At the heart of the lawsuit is a dispute over where that 100 feet begins.

The KCRCC asserts that it should begin at the building where voting occurs, while the school district argues it should start at the edge of school property.

The Idaho Attorney General’s Office published an opinion in March asserting that the school district was within its rights to remove the demonstrator.

Deputy Attorney General Robert Berry wrote that public schools are not traditional public forums open to the same electioneering standards typically found in other spaces.

“Schools may control their property while it is being used as a polling place and may exclude individuals from school property not involved in the voting process,” Berry wrote.

He further argued that schools may prohibit individuals from engaging in electioneering within 100 feet of school property — not within 100 feet of the building where voting occurs.

Morris previously rejected Berry’s opinion, calling it “flawed.”

In a brief filed this week, Morris argued that measuring from the edge of a property is unreasonable and defies common-sense understandings of what a polling place is.

Any homeowners located within 100 feet of school property who put political signs in their yards on Election Day could be subjected to fines, Morris said.

Katharine Brereton, representing the school district, echoed Berry’s analysis that school property is a limited public forum on Election Day, not a traditional one.

She further argued that Idaho Code 18-2318 exists to limit activities, rather than to grant rights to individuals like the demonstrator who handed out sample ballots outside Hayden Meadows.

Both parties submitted closing briefs to the court on Wednesday.

Chief U.S. District Judge David Nye has not yet ruled on the matter.

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Craig Northrup contributed to this report.