Legal Features
The Rutherford Institute's Brief in Karns v. Shanahan and Parker v. Shanahan
PHILADELPHIA, Pa. — Attorneys for The Rutherford Institute have asked a federal appeals court to reinstate a First Amendment lawsuit involving two street preachers who were charged with trespass and obstruction of justice and arrested for allegedly refusing police orders to cease proselytizing at a Princeton train station. In coming to the defense of evangelical preachers Don Karns and Robert Parker, Rutherford Institute attorneys are challenging as discriminatory an alleged policy by the New Jersey Transit Corporation (NJTC), enforced by the NJTC police, that requires religious speakers to acquire a permit in order to engage in non-commercial speech at the station while waiving the requirement for political speakers. In a brief filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, Institute attorneys argue that the trial court erred in ruling that the police officers did not clearly violate the First or Fourth Amendment rights of the street preachers.
