A city event permitting process in Seattle that relies on viewpoint and messaging is under fire in a courtroom.
And Liberty Counsel has now filed a new brief in the U.S. District Court in western Washington in the case Russell Johnson et al. v. City of Seattle, over its behavior.
Liberty Counsel chief Mat Staver said, “The city of Seattle enacted an unconstitutional prior restraint on the religious speech of the Mayday organizers. Silencing the peaceful public expression of Christian viewpoints cannot be tolerated. The city’s unconstitutional permitting scheme cannot withstand First Amendment scrutiny and causes irreparable harm to free speech.”
It was last May that the city “unlawfully denied the organizers of the grassroots revival event Mayday USA a permit to peacefully assemble at a traditional downtown location due to its religious message.”
City officials instead demanded the event go to Cal Anderson Park, inside an “LGBTQ+ community,” where “violent attacks from agitators ensued.”
Liberty Counsel charges a government license to engage in protected speech is a classic prior restraint violation under the First Amendment.
The lawsuit filed just weeks ago by Liberty Counsel argues Seattle’s Special Event Permitting Scheme turns over “unbridled discretion” to city officials, meaning they could shut down an event based on the views expressed and more.
While city officials claim their permit process used allowable “time, place and manner” limits, but Liberty Counsel pointed out that “when permission is required before speaking, courts have ruled that is a prior restraint.”
And those are presumptively unconstitutional.
The new reply brief points out that even the left-leaning 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has said, “If speech provokes wrongful acts on the part of hecklers, the government must deal with those wrongful acts directly; it may not avoid doing so by suppressing the speech.”
However, at the Seattle event, “police made no arrests after violent protestors assaulted attendees and volunteers by throwing urine-filled water balloons, used pepper-spray and tear gas, brandished weapons, destroyed equipment, and lobbed violent threats at women and children,” Liberty Counsel charged.
And after, Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell, now a defendant, accused the peaceful Mayday organizers of being at fault for the violence they suffered rather than the perpetrators.
Liberty Counsel represents several lead Mayday organizers, such as Russell Johnson, lead pastor of The Pursuit, a Christian church in Washington; Jenny Donnelly, founder and president of Her Voice Movement, Inc.; and other lead organizers Robert Donnelly and Ross Johnston. The plaintiffs seek a permanent injunction restraining the city from continuing its unlawful permitting process that violates the rights to free speech, religious exercise, peaceable assembly, and equal protection, as well as granting them equal access to Seattle’s streets and traditional public forums, Liberty Counsel explained.
