San Antonio Free Speech Coalition
Template:TOCnestleft San Antonio Free Speech Coalition
Appeal to 5th Circuit
According to Graciela I. Sanchez of the San Antonio Free Speech Coalition: We chant Las Calles No Se Callan! The Streets Will Not be Silent, prior to press conference announcing our appeal to the Fifth Circuit. July 27, 2009. Friends present are Rhett Smith, Johnny Martinez (hidden) Jessica O. Guerrero, Enrique Sanchez, Rosalyn Warren, Brenda Davis, Marissa Gonzalez, Justice, Isabel Sanchez, Maria Berriozabal, Mariana Ornelas, Michelle Myers, John Stanford, Gloria Ramirez, Larry Fabiola Torralba, and Amy Kastely.[1]
Hearings
In March 2010, the San Antonio Free Speech Coalition learned oral arguments in their case against the city and its revised parade ordinance would be heard by the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, located in New Orleans. Callie Enlow attended the group's meeting on April 1 to see how the exhaustively active group would handle the April 27 one-hour-plus hearing. It couldn't have been a better meeting for a neophyte like me to get briefed (albeit one-sidedly) on the history of the contentious parade ordinance and its implications for free speech.
The Esperanza Peace and Justice Center, the primary protagonists in this particular battle, hosted the event and provided the bulk of the 30 or so attendees. According to Enlow "others included the proud octogenarian member of the Communist Party to my left and his friend, Susan Ives, the leader of the local Peace Center to my right" . Amy Kastely, the lead attorney for the Free Speech Coalition, launched into her clients' grievances with a Star Wars-like beginning: "The long saga of this challenge that we're bringing begins many years ago ... "
"When we've gone to court here in town, we've packed the place," said Graciela I. Sanchez of the Esperanza Center. She hopes they'll do the same at the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, even if it's just for an hour. [2]