Judge Perry, state sued over free speech zone arrest

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla.

Chief Judge Belvin Perry is facing a lawsuit over his free-speech order for protestors outside the Orange County courthouse.

Mark Schmidter filed the suit against Orange and Osceola counties' top judge on Tuesday. The federal suit accuses Perry of restricting free speech.

The goal of the suit, according to Schmidter, is to throw out two administrative orders by Perry. One of the orders restricts free speech to small painted boxes on courthouse property, the other prevents the targeting of jurors as they walk into court.

"Because everyone has the right to petition the government on the courthouse steps, as long as you don't infringe on other people's rights and you don't impede traffic," said Schmidter.

Schmidter was arrested for violating both orders at the beginning of the Casey Anthony trial in June of 2011.

He was outside the boxes handing out fliers that suggest that jurors can and should vote not-guilty if they disagree with a law or find there's no victim.

"The judge does not tell the jury that they have the right to vote their conscious, and he doesn't tell them if there's no victim, there is no crime," said Schmidter.

"What we've got here is the most restrictive order I've ever seen dealing with free speech," said Schmidter's attorney, Adam Sudbury.

Before the administrative orders, Schmidter handed out fliers and talked to people as they walked from the courthouse parking garage to the front doors of the courthouse. Now he is restricted to a smaller area, well away from the entrance to the courthouse.

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Judge Perry, state sued over free speech zone arrest