Toren McKnight, a local progressive activist and founder of Rogue Valley Pepper Shakers, has sued the City of Ashland, Mayor Tonya Graham and Police Chief Tighe O’Meara in federal court after an officer removed him while he was speaking during a September council meeting.
McKnight was voicing his opposition during public comment to the expansion of Ashland’s Enhanced Law Enforcement Areas, which he linked to Trump administration policies, when he referred to O’Meara as a fascist.
Graham interrupted McKnight’s prepared speech after the remark, and Ashland Police Sergeant Robert Leonard, another defendant in the suit, escorted him from the meeting for “disorderly conduct,” according to the complaint.
City policy prohibits “making negative personal remarks or comments about the motives or personal traits of others” during council meetings.
But McKnight’s attorney, Alicia LeDuc Montgomery, said calling an official "fascist" is protected political speech.
“I think it's important to note that the First Amendment protects political speech even if it's offensive or derogatory,” Montgomery said. “The Constitution does not require citizens to be polite to public officials.”
The city said it does not comment on pending litigation. O’Meara was not immediately available for comment.
“The policy itself is too vague or too broad to be constitutional,” Montgomery said of the city's decorum rules. “But also… in this particular instance, it was applied in an unconstitutional way.”
She said the policy has led to a chilling of McKnight’s free speech during public meetings.
The complaint alleges the city council’s training handbook, published by the League of Oregon Cities in 2017, recommends even allowing a speaker to give a "Nazi salute" to satisfy free speech protections.
“This is a place where we offer respect for each other’s opinion, and this is a place where we respect the attitudes of other people, and we give space for that,” Graham said after the incident at the meeting. “This is a hard conversation, and we are grown-ups, and we are going to have a hard conversation as grown-ups.”
The city council later passed changes to Ashland’s Enhanced Law Enforcement Areas, which allow officers to temporarily ban repeat offenders after petitioning a judge.
McKnight is seeking damages and an injunction to stop the city’s enforcement of its public comment policy.
