Trespassing charges dropped against FL Gideons, police department concocts new charges
Posted on April 2, 2007
I guess they’ve just GOT to get those Gideons. Now they can’t be within 500 feet of a school? This is just silly.
WND: Gideons facing charges for being on public land
Two Florida men who wanted to give Bibles to children in their community are being charged under a state law that bans anyone from being within 500 feet of the land on which schools are built unless they have “legitimate business” or “prior authorization.”
As WND reported earlier, Anthony Mirto and Ernest Simpson of Monroe County were arrested, booked into jail and charged with trespassing because they were handing out Bibles while standing on a public sidewalk adjacent to a school.
Those trespassing charges were dismissed on a motion from lawyers for the Alliance Defense Fund, who challenged them on factual and constitutional grounds.
But Senior Legal Counsel David Cortman told WND he’d been notified that the two men now are being re-charged under a different statute, this one banning anyone from being on public property within 500 feet of a school property without “prior authorization” or “legitimate business.”
He said the law also includes an exemption for someone who lives within that distance from a school property.
“This obviously is unconstitutional for several reasons,” Cortman said. “The First Amendment gives you a right to be out there and engage in speech. Is anyone who uses the sidewalk or [the adjacent] highway now in violation?”
He said another issue is the definition of “legitimate business.” It’s not for the government to apply those words using one definition to one group of people, and then apply those words using another definition to another group of people, he said.
“The government is not allowed to have unbridled discretion to define words in whatever manner they choose,” he said.
On the face of the statute cited by the prosecutor, people driving by the school on the highway technically are in violation of the law, unless they have an exemption, and if the same exemption doesn’t apply to the two members of Gideons International, then that creates a content-based speech restriction, which also isn’t proper, Cortman said.
“The question I have is why is the state so intent on punishing these gentlemen for passing out Bibles on public property?” he asked. “This is just beyond comprehension.”
Sure is.
» Filed Under 1st Amendment, Church And State, News
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5 Responses to “Trespassing charges dropped against FL Gideons, police department concocts new charges”
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Would you feel the same way if these people were handing out copies
of the Q’uran or tracts espousing Wicca?
Of course they wouldn’t Gary. Chances are, a booth would be set up to
help the spread of — diversity. No Christians need apply.
Yes, Gary I would. It may be hard for you to believe, but not all Christians are hard core Rights. Seeing how I have read the Q’uran, attended Wicca rites, read the writings of Lao Tzu, and looked to learn aspects of many other religions I find the the assault on any person’s religious beliefs (even Christian and Atheist [the belief in nothing is still a belief]) to be a true crime.
If it was on a public sidewalk, no problem gary. Hope my intellectual consistency hasn’t disappointed you.
I oppose virtually every law that says “free speech, except…”, so I’ll happily reverse my position and support these men if there’s insufficient evidence to charge them under a just law.
However, there are many here that support limitations to free speech and I’m curious about how they think this is so different than persons quoting a religious text outside of a cemetery.