Arab Christian Group Claims First Amendment Rights Denied On Public Property

We read:

"The leader of an Arab Christian evangelical group filed suit against the city of Dearborn, Mich., claiming the city violated his First Amendment right to distribute literature on public property. The incident occurred last month at the city's annual Arab International Festival, an event that attracted 300,000 visitors and has provided a favorite evangelizing venue for the group, Arabic Christian Perspective, whose members have attended for the past five years.

George Saieg, Arabic Christian Perspective's founder, says trouble started when he called the Dearborn police to let them know his group would be returning to the festival. City police told Saieg that, unlike in previous years, his group would not be allowed to distribute material on the sidewalks, and that Arabic Christian Perspective could either rent a stand at the festival or be assigned a specific location at which it could distribute its literature.

With the help of the Thomas More Law Center, a conservative Christian legal group, Saieg sought a temporary injunction to stop the city from preventing his group from distributing materials on the sidewalk. But the petition was denied, and the group was permitted to distribute literature only at one location within the festival.

Saieg says that the spot was a particularly bad one, and that his group was able to distribute only $5,000 worth of literature and Bibles -- a fraction of the $50,000 worth of materials that they had prepared. In past years, he said, when they were allowed to distribute on the sidewalks, they were able to give out most of their literature.

Now Saieg is suing to get the city's action declared unconstitutional and to make sure that it has access to the sidewalks at next year's festival.

But city officials say they acted correctly. "One federal judge has already agreed with us and denied a temporary injunction," Mary Laundroche, Director of the Dearborn Office of Public Information, told FOXNews.com. "The judge agreed with us that what normally would have been public sidewalks were actually part of the festival life during the festival."

She added that members of Arabic Christian Perspective were free to preach on the sidewalks, just not to distribute materials. "They were free to go throughout the crowd and talk with people at any time. They were just prevented from distributing materials, which was a public safety issue -- they could block vehicle and pedestrian traffic." [A SAFETY issue! What BS!]

Whether Saieg is welcome or not, two First Amendment experts said sidewalks are usually considered "traditional public fora" in which distributing materials is considered protected speech, and the city's defense of its action does not appear constitutionally strong.

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