State Supreme Court Invalidates Restraining Order Barring Man From UW Property

The state Supreme Court says a restraining order barring a student protester from all University of Wisconsin property is too broad in scope.

The ruling sends the case against former University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point student Jeff Decker back to the circuit court with instructions to clarify the scope of the injunction.

For the past five years, Decker has been attending meetings on several campuses to protest UW policies that restrict the role students play in deciding how certain fees are collected. In 2011 the Board of Regents accused Decker of harassing UW officials, and a circuit court imposed a restraining order that effectively prevented Decker from setting foot on UW property anywhere in the state.

An email from the attorney general’s office said the state will work with the circuit court to refine the injunction against Decker.

Decker’s attorney Gary Grass says this week’s ruling is a victory for Decker.

“It’s going be very hard for them to put in place a new injunction,” said Grass. “This is going to be a vindication in all those various court cases around the state where they continue to try to assert this is a valid injunction, even though they more or less admitted in the Supreme Court that it wasn’t.”

Grass said the ruling also suggested that protesters that are perceived as harassing officials can be banned.

“Now I think you’ve got a worse situation for people who either want to engage in civil protest that might incidentally harass people — or do any number of other things that are completely legitimate but might happen to harass people,” said Grass.

A concurring opinion by Justice David Prosser urges the Legislature to pass a new law that clearly defines restraining orders that bar individuals from harassing a public institution or a private company as opposed to harassing specific people.