DENVER—Two anti-abortion groups that threatened to sue the city because of a delay in granting protest permits for this summer’s Democratic National Convention are backing off for now after officials told them Wednesday an application process is upcoming.
The groups had said the permit holdup was preventing them from preparing for demonstrations they have planned, and they accused the Denver city attorney of squelching their free speech rights.
“One of the key things for any presidential convention, both Republican and Democrat, should be the celebration of free speech,” said the Rev. Patrick J. Mahoney of the Washington-based Christian Defense Coalition.
Mahoney’s group, along with the California-based Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust, are planning anti-abortion rallies during the August convention.
The groups met with City Attorney David Fine and were told a permit process would be implemented by March 3, once Mayor John Hickenlooper approves it.
The meeting was enough to stop the groups from filing a lawsuit in federal court Thursday.
“We’re going to give the city the benefit of the doubt at this point,” said Brian Chavez-Ochoa, an attorney representing both groups. “If March 3 comes and goes, and there is not a permit process in place, and no definite time of when it will be in place, then we will have to reconsider our options in federal court.”
“We believe that it hasn’t taken long given the complexity of the issues involved and the number of groups we have been working with,” Fine said.
Mahoney said he was dismayed to learn last year that Denver would not issue permits for 14 city parks, including the prominent Civic Center between the state Capitol and the City-County Building, until a new system was devised.
He said the groups have been waiting to hear about the new application process since Nov. 1—the date when the city was to issue permits for 2008.
Events planned during the convention included prayer vigils and rallies, Mahoney said. In one event, Mahoney said 1,500 people would kneel around the Pepsi Center, where the convention will be held, pray for an end to abortion and leave a rose on the sidewalk.
Danielle Versluys, a spokeswoman for Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust, said in a written statement that her group hopes “the city will immediately cease this unnecessary suppression of free speech.”
Another group, Denver’s Recreate 68, has said it was willing to wait for the new policy and was not planning a lawsuit.
