A group of 11 protesters will get another day in court Monday as they move forward with a civil lawsuit arising from arrests at a gay pride rally in 2004.
Members of the Christian organization Repent America were taken into custody at the Philadelphia event after using bullhorns to quote Bible verses to hundreds of rally participants. The 11 were charged with disorderly conduct, criminal conspiracy, reckless endangerment, rioting, highway obstruction, failure to disperse, possessing an instrument of crime and ethnic intimidation.
Attorneys for the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian legal consortium, said the case reveals a deep institutional bias against religious demonstrators:
“The First Amendment right to free speech and religious freedom is at stake. Christians should not be arrested simply for exercising their constitutional free speech and religious expression rights in a public place. If this violation of these Christians’ rights is allowed to stand, the First Amendment rights of all people of faith are in jeopardy.”
The protesters were cleared of all charges in 2005, before ADF attorneys decided to bring the lawsuit in response to the arrests. A Pennsylvania district court ruled against the protesters in January 2007, saying, “There is no constitutional right to drown out the speech of another person.”
