News & Media

ADF attorneys file lawsuit against highly restrictive Jacksonville speech policy

JACKSONVILLE, Ala. — Attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund filed a lawsuit Tuesday in federal court against the city of Jacksonville on behalf of a reverend who was silenced by the city’s highly restrictive speech policy when he attempted to share his faith on a public sidewalk.

“Religious speech is not second-class speech,” said ADF Senior Legal Counsel David Cortman.  “The city’s speech code, which prohibits any amplified speech that can be heard from beyond 10 feet away, is specifically enforced against religious speech.  Examples of speech that can be heard from more than 10 feet away are normal conversation or children playing.  Certainly, then, all citizens should be concerned about such a broad policy.”

In March 2006, Reverend Wesley Sewell stood a few blocks south of the local post office on a public sidewalk to share his Christian faith with those who passed by.  He used limited amplification--a single 10-inch speaker--but was approached by a city police officer who told him that he was in violation of the city’s noise ordinance that restricts amplified sound to what can be heard within 10 feet.

Sewell obeyed the officer’s order to shut down his sound device.  When he stood at the post office this past March, where he had been permitted to stand the year before, he was told again to turn off his speaker and that he would have to get a permit to share his faith on the public sidewalk.  Police directed Sewell to the director of Parks and Recreation, who told him that no written application or guidelines exist for issuing a permit.  Nonetheless, the director said Sewell could only preach in one location with the volume set so low that only people who approached him could hear his message.

"It’s our hope that the court will see that the city’s policy is blatantly unconstitutional,” said ADF Litigation Counsel Jeremy Tedesco, who is assisting with the case.  “No city policy should be this restrictive on the free speech of Christians or any American.”

 

ADF is a legal alliance of Christian attorneys and like-minded organizations defending the right of people to freely live out their faith. Launched in 1994, ADF employs a unique combination of strategy, training, funding, and litigation to protect and preserve religious liberty, the sanctity of life, marriage, and the family.