Being a street preacher is difficult work. But it’s a lot more difficult when violent activists are trying to shut you down—and when the local police aid them in silencing you.
That’s what happened to pastor Matthew Meinecke of Seattle. But thanks to the efforts of ADF Allied Attorneys Nate Kellum and Keith Kemper, this evangelist is once again free to share the Gospel on his city’s streets.
As director of Allied Legal Affairs at Alliance Defending Freedom, I have the privilege of working with our Attorney Network. This story is just one recent example of the excellent work our Allied Attorneys are doing nationwide.
Sharing the Gospel in Seattle
Matthew Meinecke has been publicly ministering in Seattle for years. He reads the Bible aloud and often holds signs and hands out literature. His message doesn’t always resonate with listeners, but what happened in the summer of 2022 was beyond the pale.
On June 24, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Pro-abortion demonstrators gathered in Seattle to protest the decision. Meinecke also attended the protest—not to speak about abortion but to read from the Bible and share the Gospel message.
That message was not well received. Protesters surrounded Meinecke, grabbed his Bible, and ripped pages out. As the demonstrators grew more aggressive, the street preacher took hold of a traffic sawhorse. Protesters then picked Meinecke up (along with the sawhorse) and dropped him on the pavement across the street.
When Meinecke got up and began reading from Scripture again, protesters knocked him back down and took one of his shoes. When police officers finally arrived, they ordered Meinecke to leave. When he declined, they arrested him.
Just two days later, a similar situation unfolded at a pro-LGBT event in a Seattle park. Meinecke attended the event to read from his Bible, and once again, he was harassed. Event attendees surrounded the street preacher, shouted at him, and “howled and barked like dogs” in his face.
Law enforcement again showed up and told Meinecke to leave, citing “time, place, and manner” restrictions on speech. Again, Meinecke declined. And again, the officers arrested him.
A lawsuit to protect free speech
Matthew Meinecke should not have been censored, much less arrested, for peacefully sharing his views in a public place.
The First Amendment guarantees him (and every American) the rights of free speech and religious freedom, both of which he was exercising peacefully. So Meinecke, represented by Kellum and Kemper, filed a lawsuit against the city.
The parties in the lawsuit agreed that the Constitution protects religious speech like Meinecke’s. The only question was whether the officers’ restriction of that speech was permissible.
Limits on the “time, place, and manner” of speech—which officers repeatedly cited—represent one way that restrictions on speech can be constitutional if they satisfy certain criteria.
But in Meinecke’s case, the officers’ actions did not meet those criteria. Rather, the officers were censoring Meinecke based on the content of his message, violating the legal criterion that time, place, and manner restrictions must be content-neutral.
While a federal district court sided with the city, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ruled that the actions of the officers (i.e., the city) presented a content-based burden on Meinecke’s expressive activity.
“It is apparent from the facts,” the court ruled, “… that the Seattle police directed Meinecke to leave the area because of the reaction his Bible-reading provoked.”
That last part is important. The officers restricted Meinecke’s speech because of the reaction it was generating. In legal terms, that’s called a “heckler’s veto”—the censorship of someone’s speech due to a hostile reaction from opponents of that speech.
Freedom to preach
For the government to restrict the content of a person’s speech, its actions must satisfy “strict scrutiny.” Put simply, the government must show that its actions were narrowly tailored to serve compelling state interests.
The city’s restrictions silencing Meinecke did not satisfy strict scrutiny. As the court noted, the officers could have required the protesters to step away from Meinecke. Or they could have set up a barricade. Or they could have warned the protesters that physical violence would result in their arrests. They could have even arrested the individuals who ultimately assaulted Meinecke.
But the officers did none of those things. Instead, they allowed the protesters’ frenzied actions to shut down Meinecke’s speech.
The 9th Circuit was right to recognize that the officers’ actions burdened the preacher’s speech, and that Meinecke “had a right … to use public sidewalks and streets for the peaceful dissemination of his views.”
Thanks to the advocacy of our Allied Attorneys, Matthew Meinecke is now free to read his Bible aloud on the streets of Seattle without fear of arrest. It’s an encouraging example of how when we unite for a common mission, we can trust in God for astonishing results.
“This result is only fitting,” said Kellum, formerly of the Center for Religious Expression and now with First Liberty Institute. “Pastor Meinecke is thrilled to put this case behind him and get back to sharing the Gospel on the streets of Seattle.”
