Homeless activists will be allowed to erect four tents and two canopies overnight tomorrow in Westlake Park, a federal district court judge has just ruled.

"We won," said Tim Harris, director of homeless advocacy newspaper Real Change, when reached by phone. "Yay!"

Aside from suing for a one-night camping permit, the plaintiffs argued that the city ban on all parks camping between 10:00 pm and 6:00 am is too broad and too prohibitive and thus, in cases like tomorrow's politically-charged camp-in, a violation of First Amendment free speech rights. District Court Judge Richard Jones is expected to take up that ruling at a later, too-be-scheduled date, and he gave plaintiffs hope that he would once again rule in their favor.

"He basically agreed that we were likely to succeed in our broader argument that the city's restrictions of free speech with a blanket ban on all camping in all parks is a violation of our free speech rights," says Harris.

The City Attorney's Office will be briefing Mayor Mike McGinn and the city council before deciding on a next step, according to the department's spokeswoman, Kimberly Mills.

Judge Jones likely wouldn't rule that people could camp in parks unconditionally, but he could force the city to adopt more flexible guidelines for camping in parks.