Lawyer Wins First Amendment Battle Against Library

WFFT brought you  a story earlier this month--involving a local lawyer suing the Allen County Library.

  The man claimed that his first amendment rights had been violated--after he said the library denied his request to demonstrate on library grounds.

The library settled with David Kolhoff out of court and he **will** be allowed to set up his affordable care act  display on the library plaza.

While Kolhoff says he's feels victorious he wishes he didn't have to go through the drawn out process just to speak his mind.   

"If I want to exercise my first amendment rights on the library plaza you can't just say no," said Kolhoff.

The library finally came to an agreement with Kolhoff allowing him to use the plaza to educate people on the affordable care act.  However, Kolhoff says it shouldn't have been this difficult. 

"We could have saved a lot of time a lot of effort and a lot of money if the library had just really acted more reasonably from the beginning," said Kolhoff. 

Although the both parties have come to an agreement out of court--Kolhoff claims the library has given him strict guidelines as to where he can set up. 

"I have the whole plaza from the north stage all the way to the sidewalk that runs along Wayne Street," said Kolhoff. 

Although the law suit filed by the  ACLU on Kolhoff's behalf was dropped--Kolhoff says the library is planning on making permanent changes its' plaza policies. 

"I think they are going to develop a policy for the library as to how that gets used but it hasn't been developed yet," said Kolhoff. 

Kolhoff wants his experience fighting for his first amendment rights to pave the way for others wanting to express their first amendment rights at the library plaza.

"I feel vindicated and I hope this comes to some good for future things that people might be interest in," said Kolhoff.    

Even  the election is quickly approaching Kolhoff says his goal to educate people on the affordable care act will continue even after the election.

"No matter what happens in the election there's still going to be issues about this," said Kolhoff.