![[CREDIT: City of Warwick] A Warwick Officer escorts Rob Cote from Council Chambers July 17, 2023. Councilwoman Donna Travis ordered him removed for persisting in speaking about a property dispute detailed in a Providence Journal article involving Travis.](https://warwickpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Warwick-City-Council-ACLU-Cote-Free-Speech-1.jpg)
The lawsuit, filed by ACLU of RI cooperating attorneys Thomas W. Lyons and Rhiannon
Huffman, argues that the censorship of Robert Cote’s comments was a blatant violation of his First
Amendment rights to freedom of speech and freedom of petition.
The Warwick City Council allocates time at its meetings for the public to address the Council on
matters “directly affecting city government.”
At the meeting, Cote, a frequent City government critic, sought to address allegations contained in a Providence Journal article regarding the role of Council Member Donna Travis in a controversial acquisition of land from the Oakland Beach Real Estate Owners Association. The lawsuit notes that Cote “wanted to raise the issue of the transaction as it related to Travis’s ethics as a member of the City Council,” The ACLU of RI notes in its suit.
Instead Cote was escorted from the Council meeting moments into his allotted public speaking time.
“First, I’d like to congratulate Councilwoman Donna Travis. Another front page of the Providence Journal,” Cote said during the first moments of his speaking time.
“You will be talking about city government, or you will be leaving,” said Travis.
“This is about city government,” Cote said.
Travis continued to deny Cote his say, and ordered a Warwick Police Officer to remove him from the meeting. A few days afterwards, Travis said she also relied upon an unwritten City Council policy against “personal attacks” during the public comment period to ban Cote from speaking.
Cote had also wanted to comment on two additional city-related issues at the meeting, but never got the chance to do so as a result of Travis’s actions, according to the ACLU of RI.
“In my years of advocacy, my local government has become increasingly hostile to anyone who challenges the status quo. I am grateful to the ACLU of Rhode Island for defending everyone’s constitutional rights and for stepping in to hold Warwick’s government accountable for its actions against me. I am hopeful that Warwick elected and full-time employees come away from this situation with an understanding that, although they temporarily hold power, they should listen to and respect every one of their constituents – even the ones who criticize,” Cote said.
The lawsuit argues that Travis’s denial of Cote’s right to speak at the meeting, and the rest of the Council’s acquiescence in that censorship, violated Cote’s First Amendment rights. The suit seeks a court order to allow him to speak at an upcoming Council meeting on the issues he intended to raise at the July meeting, “as well as any future comments he wishes to make respecting matters affecting Warwick government”; a declaration striking down the Council’s “unwritten practice of preventing members of the public from making comments critical of individual public officials” during the public comment segment of Council meetings; and an award of monetary damages and attorneys’ fees.
“Once government officials create a forum for public content, they cannot restrict the public’s comments because they do not agree with the comments or the comments offend them,” ACLU attorney Lyons said.
Author: Rob Borkowski
Rob has worked as reporter and editor for several publications, including The Kent County Daily Times and Coventry Courier, before working for Gatehouse in MA then moving home with Patch Media. Now he's publisher and editor of WarwickPost.com. Contact him at [email protected] with tips, press releases, advertising inquiries, and concerns.
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