A state representative candidate is suing the Downers Grove Park District, claiming it violated her free-speech rights by limiting where she could campaign in a public park.

Laura Hois argues the rule that required her to restrict her campaigning last year to a “free speech zone” violated her free speech and association rights, as well as the Civil Rights Act, according to the federal complaint she filed Nov. 6. The suit also alleges the district violated the state constitution.

On July 30, 2024, Hois was speaking to people attending a concert in Fishel Park in downtown Downers Grove.

At the time, the Downers Grove Republican was running for a seat on the DuPage County Board. She is now seeking to represent the 81st state House District.

According to the lawsuit, a park district worker told her she could not campaign where she was and instead had to confine herself to a 15-by-15-foot area.

As of late Tuesday afternoon, the Downers Grove Park District did not respond to requests for comment on the lawsuit.

On Tuesday, Hois declined to discuss the lawsuit, saying she first wanted to speak with her attorney.

In the lawsuit, Hois contends that the rule requiring political talk to be confined was illegal because it restricted speech based on content. Other people using the park were free to speak to other folks anywhere in the park, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit also says the “small size” and the “remote location” of the zone “severely limited” her speech. The zone was in the rear southwest corner of the park. The park’s main attraction, a band shell, is on the eastern edge of the 1.9-acre park. There is a playground on the northern edge.

Hois said, in an affidavit attached to the lawsuit, that nobody walked by the free-speech zone.

“Seeing the flow of pedestrian traffic, it was obvious to me that this would have practically the same effect as excluding me from the park altogether,” Hois wrote.

The park is in downtown Downers Grove, bounded by a small historic cemetery, a street, an apartment building and a church.

The park board modified the rule in June.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified compensatory damages for emotional harm, plus attorneys’ fees and costs.

Hois is running unopposed in the March Republican primary. She will face incumbent state Rep. Anne Stava, a Naperville Democrat, in the November 2026 election. The 81st District includes parts of Downers Grove, Woodridge, Lisle and Naperville.

https://www.dailyherald.com/20251111/news/lawsuit-downers-grove-park-districts-free-speech-zone-illegal/