Whose Courthouse Is It, Anyway?

Apparently, Kootenai County commissioners Dick Compton, Dick Panabaker and Bob Macdonald believe the courthouse belongs to them - not the public.

How else can you explain their sneaky, arrogant and probably unconstitutional decision to ban petition gatherers from courthouse hallways?

Without fanfare, the three censors cited safety concerns for passing a resolution prohibiting “parades, processions or assemblages.” But their action was nothing more than a bald-faced attempt to muzzle tax activist Ron Rankin.

For years Rankin and his Kootenai County Property Owners Association shrewdly have used county courthouses during tax seasons to collect signatures for One Percent Initiatives. When Latah County commissioners tried to ban them in 1992, former Attorney General Jim Jones backed Rankin’s organization.

Jones’ opinion, however, seems lost on Kootenai County commissioners as does another one rendered at the time by Prosecutor Bill Douglas - that signature gathering at courthouses, college campuses and U.S. post offices represents free speech protected by the First Amendment.

In this winter of the taxpayers’ discontent, commissioners - two of whom are facing re-election - are stomping on paper-thin ice by targeting Rankin’s popular One Percent Initiative. Law-abiding citizens don’t like officials putting themselves above the laws nor do they appreciate being thrown out of their “public” courthouse.

Macdonald defended the Rankin resolution with a lame excuse - that signature gatherers in Rankin’s group, mostly retirees in their 60s and 70s, posed a life-threatening gantlet for taxpayers. For all Macdonald’s hand-wringing, you’d think the Montana militia had infiltrated Rankin’s organization.

If Rankin and his gray brigade pose a threat, it’s to the funding for the commissioner’s, sheriff’s and school budgets - through their tax-limiting initiative. But that’s no reason to deny them a spot in a public place.

Amazingly, the finicky U.S. Postal Service, which tried to prohibit employees from exchanging season’s greetings this past Yuletide, has a better grasp of this free-speech issue than Kootenai’s commissioners. USPS guidelines allow signature gatherers on postal premises as long as they don’t obstruct entrances or disturb the public.

Kootenai commissioners should remember that, although they run the courthouse, they don’t own it.

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = D.F. Oliveria/For the editorial board