The ACLU Foundation of Connecticut and the Connecticut State Police have reached an agreement in a federal lawsuit over residents’ right to protest on highway overpasses.
ACLU filed the lawsuit in federal court in September 2025 to stop State Police from preventing protest signs on highway overpasses, claiming it’s a violation of free speech and that public sidewalks are the most protected areas for free speech.
The lawsuit, filed on behalf of residents Erin Quinn and Robert Marra, names DOT Commissioner Garrett Eucalitto and Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection Commissioner Ronnell Higgins as defendants.
After a hearing in federal court in Bridgeport on Thursday, the parties reached an agreement that will be incorporated into a special order that will be in effect for two years.
The order includes language clarifying that troopers “shall not detain, identify, threaten, fine, disperse, or arrest individuals for peacefully assembling or for holding up signs conveying non-commercial, political messages when those individuals are on a sidewalk of an overpass that is not a limited-access highway based on the pace, conduct, or reaction of traffic on the highway below.”
However, the directive does not prevent troopers from arresting, fining, or dispersing any person who incites imminent unlawful action, engages in fighting words, affixes a sign to an overpass fence, drops an item from an overpass onto a highway below or stands in a roadway, according to the court agreement.
The agreement causes a stay in the current lawsuit, which will be dismissed with prejudice after the two years have concluded, unless parties have raised any objections.
Quinn and Marra – the plaintiffs in the lawsuit – are members of a group that gets together to peacefully hold posterboard signs and vinyl banners on highway overpasses above Interstate 95. The lawsuit claims police have repeatedly ordered protesters to leave, claiming they are trespassing. Some protesters have been ticketed, others have been arrested.
State Police have said they need to balance people’s rights with pedestrian and roadway safety, and that signs can be a distraction to drivers. In a statement Thursday, they thanked the ACLU for being willing to work out this agreement on how to best protect citizens’ First Amendment rights.
“We will be issuing additional guidance to our State Troopers so they can continue to safely and effectively do their jobs,” the Connecticut State Police said in a statement. “We would like to ask the public, as the Court did today, to please stay safe and limit peaceful protests to sidewalk areas.”
State regulations prohibit unauthorized signs affixed to structures like a fence on a highway overpass, a DOT spokesperson has said. But since the DOT is not responsible for enforcing state laws, all other questions related to the lawsuit were referred to the DESPP.
“We are glad that the state police will now stop breaking up demonstrations based on claims of driver distraction,” said Dan Barrett, legal director of the ACLU Foundation of Connecticut. “This is an important win for protest rights at a critical time when such freedoms are under increasing pressure across the country.”
The agreement helps ensure that state officials respect people’s fundamental constitutional protections, Barrett said.