Galvin

BACKGROUND

On March 9, 1997, members of the advocacy association Religious Witness with Homeless People (RWHP) conducted a protest at the San Francisco Presidio National Park (the Presidio). The demonstrators opposed a plan by the National Park Service, which administers the Presi-dio, to tear down 466 units of former army housing at the site, known as the Wherry Housing. The Park Service proposed restoring the area to its natural environment. RWHP campaigned for the Park Service to convert these units instead into housing for San Francisco’s poor and homeless. To promote its cause, RWHP had staged three prior sit-ins at the Wherry Housing units that led to members’ arrests and prosecutions for trespass.

The group’s fourth demonstration is the centerpiece of this case. Shortly before March 9, lead plaintiff Sister Bernie Galvin was in contact with the United States Park Police to discuss a permit for RWHP’s planned demonstration. 1 Defendant Lieu *1137 tenant Kevin Hay of the Park Police refused to allow RWHP members to conduct a march through the Presidio unless they promised not to engage in civil disobedience. Sister Bernie did not agree to this condition. Instead,…