CAMDEN - A radio show host arrested while protesting an appearance at which Gov. Corzine discussed a plan to raise highway tolls can move ahead with his lawsuit, a judge ruled yesterday.
Lawyers for Corzine and other state and local officials had asked U.S. District Judge Jerome Simandle to dismiss the suit filed by Seth Grossman and members of the group Liberty and Prosperity 1776, who contend their right to free speech was trampled. The plaintiffs are seeking unspecified money damages.
The judge said he would issue a full written opinion on his decision in about a week, but he indicated where he was headed after arguments yesterday.
"A case will survive this decision," he said, telling the parties to prepare to exchange information.
He said, however, that he would dismiss claims against some of the government employees in the suit in their capacities as public officials. The claims against Corzine, Attorney General Anne Milgram, and others as individuals might be able to continue.
The case goes back to January 2008, when Corzine was holding town hall-style meetings around the state to get feedback on his plan to raise tolls on the New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway. The unpopular plan was eventually shelved.
At the last meeting, held at the Performing Arts Center at Middle Township High School in Cape May County, Grossman and members of Liberty and Prosperity 1776, a nonprofit citizens' organization he founded, showed up to protest. They say police told them they couldn't hold placards or distribute literature inside the meeting or within 100 yards of it.
Former Bogata Mayor Steve Lonegan, now a Republican candidate for governor, was arrested when he refused to heed the order.
He later demanded an apology from the governor's office. Grossman, who arrived late, says he was arrested a few minutes later when he asked what was going on.
Grossman and his group sued Corzine, Milgram, and several local officials, claiming free speech violations and the wrongful arrest of Grossman, a lawyer in the Atlantic City suburb of Somers Point who also hosts a radio talk show.
The plaintiffs contend that while they were being kept away, Save Our State, an organization funded in part by Corzine to promote the toll plan, was passing out its literature inside the building. That, they say, unconstitutionally promoted one viewpoint over another.
Senior Deputy Attorney General Larry Etzweiler said there was no discrimination against a viewpoint. Rather, he said, the government wanted to keep out signs, which could be used as weapons or to hide weapons, and pamphlets, which could be incendiary.
"Even if you wanted to carry a sign that said, 'Hip, hip, hooray, Governor,' you would not have been able to do that," he said.
Grossman said that he had hoped the judge would not throw out any part of the case but that it's good for democracy that the main parts are moving ahead.
"Had the judge ruled that what they were doing to the people of the state at Middle Township was OK and that there was no remedy," he said, "that would have been a shocking blow to freedom in the state."
A spokesman for Corzine referred questions to the Attorney General's Office, whose spokesman, Lee Moore, didn't immediately have a comment on yesterday's arguments.