photo by: Lawrence City Commission screenshot

Justin Spiehs speaks during public comment Tuesday, April 2, 2024, at the Lawrence City Commission meeting.

A federal judge has summarily tossed the case of a frequent public commenter who sued the City of Lawrence, claiming that officials had violated his constitutional rights.

No one at the city violated the rights of Justin Spiehs, Judge Julie Robinson ruled Thursday in a 14-page order.

Spiehs, who has sued nearly every governing body in Douglas County, had alleged that the city’s “germane” and “decorum” standards for general public comment violated his First Amendment rights. He additionally alleged that the city retaliated against him by removing him from meetings and that such actions violated his equal protection rights.

Robinson found against Spiehs on every claim, noting that the city’s requirement that comments be germane to city business and comply with a decorum standard were “reasonable and viewpoint-neutral speech restrictions permissible in a limited public forum.”

Summary judgment means that there was no material issue of fact to decide and that the case could be decided simply as a matter of law.

Spiehs is one of two individuals who frequently appear at local government meetings, often disrupting them with obscene language and vulgar personal attacks on officials. The pair have espoused the viewpoint that they are entitled to say virtually anything they want at such meetings — a viewpoint soundly rejected in Thursday’s ruling.

Spiehs, who lives in Johnson County, has also sued Douglas County officials, the Lawrence school district and the Lawrence Public Library.

Just this week he sued the City of Merriam after he was arrested for trespassing at a community center there.