Arkansas, Texas Cases Focus on Christians' Free-Speech Rights -- GOPUSA

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Arkansas, Texas Cases Focus on Christians' Free-Speech Rights
By Jody Brown
AgapePress
October 6, 2006

(AgapePress) -- Constitutional law attorneys with a Mississippi-based pro-family organization are staying busy defending the free-speech rights of Christians in Arkansas and Texas who are encountering resistance from their local law enforcement officials.

Two sisters in Little Rock -- Talitha and Rachael Snow, ages 20 and 16 respectively -- were charged last month with disorderly conduct for handing out gospel tracts to women who were entering an abortion mill in the capital city. Attorneys with the American Family Association's Center for Law & Policy came to their defense in court yesterday (October 4) and were successful in winning a dismissal of the case against Talitha.

"Talitha should never have been charged," says the CLP, "and the Little Rock prosecutor should never have pursued her prosecution." The firm says the case against Rachael is expected to be dismissed soon as well.

On the heels of that victory, CLP attorneys are in a Dallas, Texas, federal court today on behalf of a Christian who has been threatened with arrest for sharing his faith and distributing Christian literature during the Texas State Fair. They are seeking protection for Darrel Rundus's right to do that on the state fairgrounds, which is public property.

According to the legal group, Christians like Rundus have been prevented by members of the Dallas Police Department from handing out tracts and witnessing their faith inside the perimeter of the fairgrounds, and have threatened those who attempt to do so even in the immediate area. The attorneys say they plant to ask for an emergency ruling confirming Rundus's right to share his faith in public areas on the fairgrounds.

"What could be more open to the public than the area in and around a state fairground?" asks the CLP. "Where members of the public may roam freely and speak about what they wish, people of Christian faith should be free to do the same."

The Little Rock free-speech case is significant, says the CLP, because there appears to be a trend within American police departments to use disorderly conduct statutes to suppress the free speech of people of Christian faith when their expressions do not line up with the views of local government officials. In a similar fashion, the attorneys say threats of arrest -- such as those levied by law enforcement officers in Dallas -- should not be used by local authorities to demonstrate approval or disapproval of certain public speech.