« Once again Democrat's moral backbone is AWOL | Main | Beating Fundamentalism into your kids »

July 19, 2006

Christians Fighting for Everyone's Freedom of Speech

One of our most precious freedoms in this country is the right to speak freely in the public square. And one of the more frustrating interferences with our civil rights of late has been the increasing use of designated free speech zones, where people can say whatever they want but only out of earshot of any audience – thereby rendering the speech effectively mute.

Now the free speech zones are hitting a group that may be able to do something about them. A Christian group has just filed suit for having been kicked off Navy Pier in Chicago, where they were preaching and handing out fliers, and being told to do their preaching in a designated free speech zone. I really hope this one goes all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court and that the Court rules in their favor. If so, it will not be the first time religious proselytizers have gone to court in free speech battles that have strengthened civil rights protections for the rest of us.

All you need to do to understand the significance of this is to replace the following suppression of religious speech with suppression of political speech. Clearly, it is essential that these street preachers win in Court:

According to the suit, the plaintiffs were [distributing free religious literature and engaging in one-on-one discussion in the public square] on Saturday, July 15, at Navy Pier, when a police officer told them "they must leave or be arrested. Another officer informed plaintiffs that they must stand in designated 'free speech zones.'"

On Sunday, the plaintiffs returned to Navy Pier, and were told they could hold their demonstration across the street from the Pier. They were then told they could not stay in the park across from Navy Pier and were arrested, the suit says. The suit alleges that following their arrest, a police officer told one of the plaintiffs, as he was picking up his box of "gospel tracts," to "get this s**t our [sic] of here. Nobody wants to hear your bulls**t."

The plaintiffs met with an attorney for the city on Monday, the suit says, who reiterated that the group could preach in the free speech zones, but the suit contends that "confining plaintiffs to free speech zones would prevent their ministry objectives because they would be unable to effectively engage in dialogue with the public."

I sincerely hope the ACLU takes up this case. (Of course, even if the ACLU did take up and win the case, I wouldn't expect the Christian community to get over their insane aversion to the group. But the rest of us would love them even more.)

Posted by Becky at July 19, 2006 01:50 PM