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SALT LAKE CITY — The organizer of a march on State Street to call attention to climate change has sued UDOT after it denied him a permit because he wouldn't buy liability insurance.
Alex Mateus, founder of Positive Change Utah, claims in a federal lawsuit that the Utah Department of Transportation's insurance requirement bars his rights to freedom of expression and assembly. Mateus says he doesn't have the $300 to $500 he estimated it would cost for a policy to cover the one-day event.
Mateus wants to rally at the state Capitol on Oct. 8 and march to Washington Square on State Street, arguing the procession needs to be on the road "because the issues at hand involve, among other things, the overuse of motor vehicles and their harm to the environment."
Salt Lake City issued Mateus a conditional free- expression permit and told him he must obtain UDOT's permission to use State Street. UDOT told him he needed a $2 million liability insurance policy. Mateus tried to get the agency to waive the requirement but was told that couldn't be done, according to the lawsuit.
UDOT also told him he wouldn't need a permit if he decided to stay on the sidewalk.
Mateus, according the lawsuit, said that wouldn't work.
"On the sidewalk, marchers would be forced to dodge, snake and weave around light posts, bus benches, parking meters, fire hydrants, traffic signs and signals, bicycle racks, construction barriers, pedestrians, planter boxes and other obstacles," the lawsuit says. "The group leading the march would not be able to carry large banners down the sidewalk without going sideways between and around obstacles and oncoming pedestrians."
In the lawsuit, Mateus' attorney Brian Barnard seeks a permanent injunction allowing Positive Change Utah to engage in its planned "expressive and political activities" without obtaining the required insurance.
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