Federal court: La. town violated Christian man’s free speech rights

BATON ROUGE, La. — A federal court Wednesday ruled in favor of a Christian man threatened with arrest for sharing a religious message outside a restaurant with a bar in the town of Zachary.  The court ruled that the city’s use of an ordinance banning “annoying” and “offensive” speech violated the First Amendment rights of John Todd Netherland, represented by Alliance Defense Fund attorneys.

“Christians shouldn’t be penalized for expressing their beliefs,” said ADF Senior Legal Counsel Joel Oster.  “The court correctly ruled that the city did not have constitutional justification to completely silence Mr. Netherland’s speech just because someone thought it was ‘annoying.’  The Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment was designed to prevent exactly that sort of muzzling by government officials.”

According to the court’s ruling, “There was no adequate justification for the City’s actions when its officers sought to silence Mr. Netherland’s religious pronouncements.  Speech cannot be restricted simply because it causes serious offense to others.  Thus, even if Mr. Netherland’s speech was highly offensive to some people, it is protected in a traditional public forum.  The government ‘may not prohibit the verbal or nonverbal expression of an idea merely because society finds the idea offensive or disagreeable.’”

In November 2006, John Todd Netherland stood approximately 75 to 100 feet away from the entrance of a Baton Rouge bar on a public easement to speak about his Christian faith.  Even though Netherland was on public property, a police officer ordered him to stand on the far side of the easement or face jail and arrest.

After complying, the officer told Netherland that if he continued preaching--even at the prescribed distance--he would be arrested for “disturbing the peace.”  The city ordinance to which the officer referred prohibits speech that is “annoying” or “offensive” to other people.

The court had already issued a preliminary injunction against the ordinance, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit sent the case back to the district court asking it to first rule on the ordinance as applied to Netherland before ruling on the constitutionality of the ordinance itself.

ADF is a legal alliance of Christian attorneys and like-minded organizations defending the right of people to freely live out their faith.  Launched in 1994, ADF employs a unique combination of strategy, training, funding, and litigation to protect and preserve religious liberty, the sanctity of life, marriage, and the family.