BY CHESTER NELSON
MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota - Supporters of free speech scored a victory here November 10 when the city attorney's office dropped the last of two charges against a supporter of Jennifer Benton, Socialist Workers candidate for mayor of Minneapolis, for selling the Militant newspaper and posting fliers.

Doug Jenness, the Socialist Workers Party candidate for mayor of St. Paul and a member of the United Steelworkers of America, was cited by police in the Uptown area of Minneapolis on August 31 under city ordinances that require permits for selling and posting literature. He faced a maximum penalty of a $700 fine or 90 days in jail or both for each citation.

The citation for selling the socialist weekly was dropped at his arraignment November 7. The second charge was dismissed after city attorneys had a few days to study a court order temporarily enjoining the city from enforcing the ordinances Jenness was cited under. The injunction was issued October 28 by federal district judge John Tunheim in response to a civil lawsuit brought against the city by Benton.

The lawyer assigned to Jenness' case from the criminal division of the city attorney's office claimed that she had not seen the 12-page opinion and court order before the arraignment. A different department - the civil division of the city attorney's office - is defending the city against the socialists' lawsuit.

The injunction also bars the city from enforcing an ordinance requiring permits for setting up tables on sidewalks.

In addition to requesting the temporary order, the socialist lawsuit calls on the Court to grant a permanent injunction and a declaratory judgment stating that the permit scheme is unconstitutional. In all three ordinances in question the only specification for obtaining permits is that they are granted by the city council. In his memorandum Judge Tunheim stated that this allows the city the opportunity "to discriminate on the basis of the content of protected speech, and that the ordinances lack procedural due process protections for permit applicants." He added that Benton, the plaintiff, "is therefore likely to succeed in demonstrating that the ordinances are unconstitutional as applied to protected speech on this basis alone..."

Faced with the likelihood of losing in court, the city attorneys' office has informed Benton's attorney, Randall Tigue, that it is attempting to get the city council to amend the ordinances in question.

The Committee to Defend Free Speech, formed to organize support and raise funds for the socialist lawsuit, has announced that it is continuing to fight for a victory in the lawsuit that would open the door wider to the First Amendment fight to freedom of speech. More than 200 people have signed petitions supporting the effort and a number of professors, civil libertarians and union officials have either sent letters or called Mayor Sharon Sayles Belton's office demanding the charges against Jenness be dropped and supporting the lawsuit.  
 
 
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