On The Front Lines
Rutherford Institute Attorneys File Suit Against Lebanon City Parks Officials For Banning Distribution of Religious Literature
Complaint Filed in U. S. District Court for the Southern District of IndianaINDIANAPOLIS -- Attorneys for The Rutherford Institute have filed a civil complaint in the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana in Indianapolis on behalf of a minister and church member who were prohibited by Lebanon City Parks and Recreation officials from handing out religious literature in a public park.
On June 29, 2002, park officials stopped Grace Baptist Church minister Grant Hodges and Michael Johnson from distributing Christian literature within the boundaries of the Lebanon Memorial Park in Lebanon, Ind. Hodges has distributed religious tracts at the park for 19 years without any problems. However, soon after informing church members that they must cease and desist from handing out religious tracts in the park, the mayor and the parks director proposed a policy to limit the distribution of literature in Lebanon City Parks. The new policy, which took effect on April 16, 2003, prohibits individuals from distributing any type of written material without the express permission of the Parks and Recreation Board. In order to receive permission, an individual must apply for a permit and provide the parks director with a copy of the material they wish to distribute. However, even in those instances when a permit is issued, it is only viable for one day at a time and limits distribution of literature to certain prescribed areas of the park, which amount to a small portion of the park's total area. The complaint filed by attorneys for The Rutherford Institute charges that the policy is unconstitutional and violates the rights guaranteed by the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the U. S. Constitution and Article I, Section 9, of the Indiana Constitution. Institute attorneys also assert that the policy constitutes an unlawful prior restraint on protected speech and does not constitute reasonable time, place and manner restrictions on speech within a traditional public forum.
"Policies such as the one in Lebanon arise less from hostility to religion than a misunderstanding of the Constitution and its protections for free speech and religion," said John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute. "Since the founding of this country, public parks have been places to assemble, speak freely and leaflet. In fact, our nation's parks are part of a public forum that the U. S. Supreme Court has repeatedly safeguarded."
The Rutherford Institute is an international, nonprofit civil liberties organization committed to defending constitutional and human rights.
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