Germany's top court overturns Stuttgart's protest ban
April 18, 2020
Germany's Federal Constitutional Court rebuked Stuttgart city for just citing a local pandemic decree and saying "no" on the phone to a person who planned to hold a 50-person demonstration on Saturday against the coronavirus-related lockdown measures in place.
Article 8 on freedom of assembly in Germany's Basic Law could only be curbed via an administrative exercise of discretion over "concrete circumstances," it ruled, referring to a decree issued by Baden-Württemberg state.
The government of Stuttgart, the state's capital, argued that the decree gave it no scope to even issue a legally contestable reply. The person organizing the demonstration had wanted to highlight widespread incursions on basic rights since Germany's pandemic lockdown began in mid-March.
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Decision on a case-by-case basis
In a fast-track preliminary ruling, judges at the Karlsruhe-based court stated: "Merely blanket arguments, which could be applied against any assembly, would not do justice to the discretionary scope required of administrators by the norm-making parliament…"
The plaintiff, whose name was not visible in the top court's ruling, approached Karlsruhe after losing a lower-court appeal before Baden-Württemberg's top administrative court on Wednesday.
The three-judge Karlsruhe panel in their ruling said the Stuttgart city administration in negotiations with the applicant could have agreed on a lower number of participants combined with physical spacing, location and demonstration timing.
On Wednesday, Germany's top court in similar fast-track provision rulings, had quashed two rejections of demonstrations in Giessen, a city in Hesse state, enabling them to proceed, but under strict safeguards.
ipj/sri (dpa, AFP, Reuters)