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"                      <p class=\"imgtitle\">Jezioro</p>             ELKINS &ndash; In a constitutional triumph for the Constitution Party, U.S. District Judge John Bailey ruled that citizens can circulate petitions on West Virginia public lands.<br /><br />  On June 3, he held that West Virginia legislators violated First Amendment rights when they banned soliciting in state parks and other recreational areas.<br /><br />  He did not disturb a ban on hawking, peddling or carrying on business in parks.<br /><br />  His ruling will allow the Constitution Party of West Virginia to circulate petitions at National Hunting and Fishing Days in Stonewall Jackson Lake State Park.<br /><br />  Park rangers chased party leaders away from the event in 2007.<br /><br />  The party sued Division of Natural Resources chief Frank Jezioro, who responded that they should have applied for a permit like other exhibitors at the event.<br /><br />  Bailey disagreed, ruling that no one needs a permit to solicit in any park on any day.<br /><br />  He found that the ban acted as prior restraint on expression in a public forum.<br /><br />  \"Any prior restraint on expression in a public forum is subject to strict scrutiny,\" he wrote.<br /><br />  He wrote that the ban \"fails this strict scrutiny test as it is not narrowly tailored to serve a significant government interest.\"<br /><br />  He wrote that a DNR regulation under the law vested the director with unlimited discretion to grant or deny a permit.<br /><br />  \"The regulation thus burdens a large quantity of speech and subjects all potential speakers to the whim of the director of the DNR,\" he wrote.<br /><br />  He wrote that an absence of standards for review of a denial is enough alone to find the regulation overly broad.<br /><br />  Joseph Wallace and John Wallace of Elkins represented the Constitution Party in association with the Rutherford Institute of Charlottesville, Virginia.<br /><br />  Keith Gamble of Pullin, Fowler, Flanagan, Brown and Poe in Morgantown, represented Jezioro"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://wvrecord.com/stories/510596252-constitution-party-wins-constitutional-fight>