On December 13, 2025, David Hoffman and friends, compelled by their Christian beliefs, visited the Winterhaven Festival of Lights – an annual festival held in the Winterhaven neighborhood in Tucson – to share their faith with those willing to listen or take their written materials. The festival is open to the public, free of charge, and does not require tickets for entry. Attendees are invited to walk through the public ways that wind through the neighborhood to take in and enjoy light displays, food, and drink supplied by local vendors.
Yet, on the first night of the festival, City police officers approached Hoffman’s group and warned them to halt their expression, citing the festival’s solicitation policy as basis. This policy prohibits all “political, religious, or commercial materials or messaging. The City relegated Hoffman and his group’s religious messaging to the confines of a barricaded zone set up outside of the Festival footprint.
Far from festivalgoers, the speech zone separates Hoffman and friends from their desired audience and devastates their intended message. In response to this religious discrimination, First Liberty sent a demand letter in December 2025.
In the letter, First Liberty attorneys informed the city, “Hoffman’s means of evangelistic speech, literature distribution and oral expression, are fully protected under the First Amendment…[a]nd, public streets, being the ’prototypical example of a public forum,’ are ideal places to have this expression.”
“The City of Tucson is unlawfully suppressing Mr. Hoffman’s speech by removing his religious expression from public property and separating his speech from fellow attendees by placing a barricade between them,” said Nate Kellum, Senior Counsel for First Liberty Institute. “The city isolates religious speech for censorship. It’s unconstitutional. Like any other kind of speech, religious speech is protected under the First Amendment.”
News Release
For Immediate Release: 12.17.25
Contact: John Manning, media@firstliberty.org
Direct: 972-941-4453
City of Tucson Bans Religious Speech at Holiday Festival
Banishing religious speech from public property is unconstitutional.
Tucson, AZ—First Liberty Institute sent a letter to the City of Tucson demanding local resident David Hoffman be allowed to share his religious beliefs on public ways at the Winterhaven Festival of Lights. Police threatened to arrest Hoffman and his friends unless they confined their religious activity to a barricaded zone away from event attendees.
You can read the letter here.
“The City of Tucson is unlawfully suppressing Mr. Hoffman’s speech by removing his religious expression from public property and separating his speech from fellow attendees by placing a barricade between them,” said Nate Kellum, Senior Counsel for First Liberty Institute. “The city isolates religious speech for censorship. It’s unconstitutional. Like any other kind of speech, religious speech is protected under the First Amendment.”
On December 13, 2025, Hoffman and friends visited the Winterhaven neighborhood in Tucson, Arizona during the Winterhaven Festival of Lights to share their faith with attendees. They sought to share their Christian beliefs to those willing to listen or take their written materials. But police officers advised that their activity violated the festival’s solicitation policy which explicitly banned religious speech in the area. Hoffman and his group were told they must engage in their religious messaging within the confines of a barricaded zone, titled “Designated Space for Peaceful Messaging and Literature Distribution,” set up outside of the festival footprint near Fort Lowell Road.
In the letter, First Liberty attorneys informed the city, “Hoffman’s means of evangelistic speech, literature distribution and oral expression, are fully protected under the First Amendment…[a]nd, public streets, being the ’prototypical example of a public forum,’ are ideal places to have this expression.”
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About First Liberty Institute
First Liberty Institute is a non-profit public interest law firm and the largest legal organization in the nation dedicated exclusively to defending religious freedom for all Americans.
To arrange an interview, contact John Manning at media@firstliberty.org or by calling 972-941-4453.
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