by Rusty Pugh
(AgapePress) – Pro-life activists in Wisconsin are challenging a law that they say targets pro-life demonstrators and silences their free speech.
Protestant minister Matt Trewhella and his associate Jim Long have filed suit against the City of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, alleging that its recently enacted “parade and assembly” ordinance is unconstitutional. Trewhella and Long say city officials are singling them out because of their pro-life views.
American Family Association Center for Law & Policy attorney B.J. Brown says the city ordinance basically gives the police and city clerk the power to deny or even halt a peaceful pro-life demonstration. Brown says the City of Lake Geneva is taking a “big brother” attitude.
“You don't even have to go to the law to see that this thing needs to be thrown out,” Brown says. “Just reading it, using common sense, tells the layman that it is just rife with problems. As a matter of fact, it's rife with constitutional defects.”
Brown says the ordinance does not apply to many groups, but essentially makes a family picnic in the park without a permit illegal. While he believes the ordinance will not be enforced in that manner, Brown says it is clear who the ordinance targets.
“We've already seen how it's going to be used,” he says, “and that's to keep the pro-lifers from assembling in Lake Geneva [and] to keep pro-lifers from carrying signs in Lake Geneva without 30 days advance notice and approval.” And the attorney points out that such approval is not going to come because a sign at a public demonstration may “upset someone,” which he says will not receive approval.
The Lake Geneva ordinance is similar to one passed into law in neighboring Elkhorn, Wisconsin, which has been revoked in previous litigation by the AFA Law Center.
(This update courtesy of Agape Press.)
