MILWAUKEE — People will be allowed to carry guns within blocks of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee next month, and protesters will be given two outdoor stages, one within sight of the convention arena, under a security plan law enforcement authorities released Friday.

Demonstrators pushed back, arguing that the plan’s protest zones are so far from the Fiserv Forum that they won’t be seen or heard.

The plan calls for two perimeters that extend for blocks around the arena. Vehicles will have to pass through checkpoints to travel between the two boundaries. Pedestrians will be allowed to move freely without being screened in that area but only convention goers will be allowed within the inner perimeter.

No weapons of any kind will be allowed within the inner perimeter, but people will be able to carry guns openly or concealed elsewhere as allowed under state law. Wisconsin statutes outlaw only machine guns, short-barreled shotguns and silencers.

“It’s about behaviors,” said Milwaukee Police Chief Jeffrey Norman. “So, understand that there is going to be that level of surveillance and monitoring that that’s the particular right that you like to express. Just don’t do anything that could be considered a threat or harm to the public.”

Weapons haven’t been the only question dogging city officials as they grapple with how to handle tens of thousands of people in the city’s downtown during the convention, set to run July 15-18. More than 100 organizations have applied to demonstrate at the convention so far, Nick DeSiato, Mayor Cavalier Johnson’s chief of staff, said during a news conference.

The Coalition to March on the RNC — a group of local and national organizations including the Milwaukee Democratic Socialists of America, immigrant advocacy group Voces de La Frontera and the American Party of Labor — has planned a protest parade on the first day of the convention.

The coalition contends that it has been trying to obtain a permit for the parade since April 2023, but city officials still haven’t granted it. The city has also been slow-walking release of a parade route, the coalition maintains, raising fears that the city won’t allow protesters within sight of the arena.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit on the coalition’s behalf on June 5 alleging the delay in releasing a route amounts to a denial in violation of the coalition’s free speech rights.

The ACLU has asked U.S. District Judge Brett Ludwig to issue a temporary injunction forcing the city to designate a route within sight and hearing of the arena and immediately process the coalition’s permit applications. Ludwig has set a scheduling conference for the case on Monday.

The security plan authorities released Friday establishes a parade route just inside the far southern edge of the outer perimeter, about five blocks from the arena, with a stage for speakers within the route.

Asked if he believes the route will satisfy the coalition, DeSiato said it runs along the inner perimeter fence and that was as close as authorities could get marchers to the arena when considering exit points and emergency vehicle access. He said setting up the route was a “very complicated math problem.”

The plan also establishes a stage for protest speakers on the northern edge of the perimeter about a block from Fiserv Forum.

DeSiato said the city will provide a sound system for speakers on both stages, but each speaker will be limited to 20 minutes to ensure everyone gets a chance to talk.

ACLU attorney Tim Muth said in a statement that the organization was “surprised and disappointed” at the sheer size of the inner perimeter. The large radius makes it more important that the city allow free expression and assembly, he said, and he promised to continue the lawsuit.

“We hope for a swift ruling that will vindicate the coalition’s plan for a march that passes within sight and sound of Fiserv Forum,” he said.

Omar Flores, a coalition co-chair, told reporters at a news conference later Monday that the demonstration zones are unacceptable and accused city leaders of turning Milwaukee into a Republican playground.

He said that coalition demonstrators want to be within sight and sound of Fiserv Forum’s front doors and they’ll follow their own parade route.

Laster, who has called the legislation “major surgery,” said in his decision that companies must comply with Delaware law.

“Market participants must conform their conduct to legal requirements, not the other way around,” the ruling said.

Rep. Madinah Wilson-Anton (D-Newark) and Republican Rep. Michael Smith called experts to testify on both sides of the issue.

Wilson-Anton said she’s seen memos dating back years warning that the stockholder agreements were unenforceable.

Her expert, Charles Elson, founding director emeritus of the Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware, said one of the concerns with these stockholder agreements is a lack of transparency.

“If you buy into a company, and there’s already a side agreement that effectively lays out how the company is going to be managed and function and you’re unaware of it,” he said. “And the problem of these things remaining no secret, if you will, is the danger of a minority buying in and discovering that the cards have already been stacked, so to speak.”

Former Chancellor William Chandler defended the Corporation Law Council on the writing of the bill. DSBA and the bill sponsors have disputed the view that the revisions are a sweeping overhaul of current law.

“I believe in placing my trust in that organization because they have never, ever failed,” he said. “I trust the Corporate Law Council in doing the right thing.”

Chandler said, “The corporate market isn’t ‘feeling good’ about Delaware,” and questioned McCormick and Laster’s objectivity on cases related to the bill’s amendments to state law.

“As Chancellor, I will tell you I was taught judges need to stay in their own lane,” he said. “Judges need to be judging cases in the courtroom, applying the law that you give them. Judges don’t need to intrude upon the process of making law.”

After a back-to-back scrub, followed by a rare T-0 abort on June 14, Space X will try once again to launch the Starlink 10-2 mission.

SpaceX is aiming for a liftoff time of 1:15 p.m. EDT on Sunday, yet the launch window runs until 5:01 p.m. if needed.

When is the next Florida rocket launch? Is there a launch today? Upcoming SpaceX, NASA, ULA rocket launch schedule in Florida

SpaceX launch delay from Florida

This is the mission that resulted in an unusual scrub for SpaceX. After the Falcon 9 engines ignited on June 14, spectators watched as nothing happened with the rocket. The clock was at T-0, yet the rocket was still on the pad. There had been an abort − something of a rarity for SpaceX.

SpaceX did not give an official answer about what happened to this Starlink mission. However, the company’s VP of launch, Kiko Dontchev, took to X the following evening with a statement that the rocket had experienced a hardware issue. SpaceX decided to take the troubled Falcon 9 off Space Launch Complex 40 to get German TV satellite Astra 1P to the pad. But then weather got in the way of that launch.

Finally, on Thursday, Astra 1P rocketed off Space Launch Complex 40, ending an almost two-week launch drought on the Space Coast.

The launch drought wasn’t due to just weather and technical issues. With SpaceX only having access to Kennedy Space Center’s Pad 39A and Space Launch Complex 40, this made for a bit of a rocket traffic jam as teams were already preparing to raise a Falcon Heavy rocket on Pad 39A.

The payload of that triple-core Falcon Heavy is the GOES-U weather satellite, which is set to liftoff as soon as 5:16 p.m. EDT on Tuesday.

SpaceX upcoming rocket launches from Florida

Before we see GOES-U carried to orbit on a Falcon Heavy, SpaceX has plans to get this Starlink 10-2 off from Launch Complex 40. If SpaceX cannot launch during Sunday’s window, a backup opportunity exists on Monday beginning at 1:00 p.m. EDT.

Being from the Starlink Group 10, this Falcon 9 will be launching into the northeast.

Follow the FLORIDA TODAY Space Team for the latest space news from the Space Coast.

Brooke Edwards is a Space Reporter for Florida Today. Contact her at bedwards@floridatoday.com or on X: @brookeofstars.