Monday, January 12, 2009




Rough Road for the Gospel: New York Tries to Censor Evangelist's Truck

We read:
"It's Daniel Burritt's truck. It's his land. It's his personal religious belief. It's just not his legal right, says the New York Department of Transportation, to share that belief on that property, using that truck.

For the last 17 months, Burritt has stored supplies for his company, Acts II Construction, Inc., in a strategically parked trailer - on his private business property - facing traffic from both directions along U.S. Route 11. On that trailer, in large capital letters, is a message:

YOUR WAY OR GOD'S WAY? JESUS SAID, "I AM THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE. NO MAN COMES TO THE FATHER EXCEPT BY ME." WILL YOU SPEND ETERNITY WITH JESUS?

Not long after he posted that message, officials from the nearby town of Gouverneur tried to force him to remove it but backed off after Alliance Defense Fund allied attorneys contacted them. Then, in May of last year, Burritt received a letter from the New York State Department of Transportation accusing him of violating state law by posting his message without a permit. More than that, they said, the message-bedecked trailer was a "public nuisance." Either Burritt could remove the message, or they would.

ADF attorneys quickly pointed out that NYDOT doesn't require permits for similar displays of commercial messages and filed suit in federal court to protect Burritt's First Amendment rights. ADF also persuaded NYDOT to leave the trailer alone until the court ruled on the case, one way or another.

Well, last month, the court ruled in favor of Burritt. On December 22, a federal judge declined NYDOT's request to drop the case and issued a preliminary injunction preventing the state from disturbing Burritt's trailer until the rest of his case is settled.

Source

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

A court decision for sanity is always a good thing.

Anonymous said...

"A court decision for sanity is always a good thing."

Yup. It is a good thing.

Unfortunately it's also a rare thing!

Anonymous said...

The statement on the side of his trailer must really be disturbing to some people. It forces the reader to make a decision.

Anonymous said...

Burritt could,if he is determined,
change the name of his company to read the same as the text of his message .A bit long for a co. name but it could work.
It seems some public servants like to pursue their personal vendetta at tax payers expense.

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Anonymous said...

It looks like common sense has set in tell those ofcials the constitution applies to everyone not just a bunch of liberal wussietards going naked for stupid groups like PETA