Left Field Media Llc Is The Appellant - 1057 Words

Left Field Media LLC is the appellant (lower court plaintiff). The City of Chicago, Illinois, and Elias Voulgaris are the appellees (lower court defendants). Left Field Media LLC publishes Chicago Baseball. Elias Voulgaris is a patrol officer in Chicago’s police force. Facts: At the first Chicago Cubs’ home game of 2015, Left Field’s Editor Matthew Smerge was selling his Chicago Baseball magazine at the corner of Clark and Addison streets adjacent to Wrigley Field. Smerge refused to move when officer Elias Voulgaris told him to go across the street to be in compliance with the Adjacent-Sidewalks Ordinance, which prohibits peddling on specific sidewalks adjacent to Wrigley Field. Smerge was ticketed and he then moved rather than risk arrest. He later sued, claiming that the city ordinance violates the First Amendment. Smerge did not have a peddlers’ license-badge and was not ticketed for lacking one. Lower Court Holdings: The district court declined to issue a preliminary injunction. Issue Presented: Is banning all sales on crowded sidewalks adjacent to a stadium a reasonable time, place, and manner restriction on the First Amendment rights of publishers which is fairly applied or should newspapers be given an exception to the peddling ban? Holdings: The U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the lower court in denying Left Field’s motion for a preliminary injunction. The district court may now hear a request for a new hearing and a permanent injunction. The