Juneau's Fourth of July parade committee disbands after free-speech flap

Juneau has no one to run its Fourth of July parade next year. The volunteer committee that has organized it disbanded in August — weeks after it barred a veteran from marching with an anti-war banner, and while the city was weighing whether to require future organizers to follow constitutional free-speech rules.

The Juneau 4th of July Parade Committee, also known as the Juneau Festival Association, dissolved around Aug. 10, the municipal attorney told an Assembly committee. Nothing in the public record explains why, and the timing alone doesn't establish that the controversy caused it. The Douglas Fourth of July Committee, which runs its own parade, is unaffected.

The controversy is recent and unresolved. Organizers turned away a man carrying a peace banner from this year's parade, saying the event is family-oriented and not a venue for protest. Civil rights attorney Douglas Mertz said he was "dumbfounded to learn that KJ had been basically kicked out of the Fourth of July parade by the organizers simply because he had a banner advocating peace."

That episode put a legal question in front of the city: whether a group running a parade on public streets, with city involvement, can exclude someone over the message they carry. The Assembly hasn't answered it. City attorneys plan to redraft the legislation governing the city's relationship with parade organizers, but the Assembly has not decided whether to bind a future organizer to constitutional standards or stay out of it entirely.

For now, the practical problem is simpler: someone has to put on the parade. The city manager's office is hoping the Chamber of Commerce or another group steps in, and Manager Katie Koester is weighing what comes next. The Assembly committee took no action.