by Jayla Ward • 2 minutes
This week, First Liberty sent a letter to the City of Waco, Texas demanding that a pastor of a local church be allowed to share his faith through conversation and dialogue at Brazos Park East, which is owned and maintained by the city.
The city enacted a policy that allows an event organizer to request the removal of speech that it doesn’t like, banishing religious speech to a distant, tiny “Free Speech Zone.” Our letter explains that this violates the religious liberty and free speech rights of Pastor Ronnie Holmes. We’re asking the city to stop this discriminatory policy.
You can read our letter here.
Last October, Pastor Ronnie and four members of his church went out to the park to share their faith during the annual “Out on the Brazos” festival held by the Waco Pride Network (WPN).
There was no payment or ticket required for entry to the event, and the park remained open to the public. Pastor Ronnie and the group simply wanted to start conversations, hand out cards and share their faith, as they had in the previous year.
An hour later, the Waco Police Department confronted the group and ordered them to stop. The officers said that WPN’s permit allowed them to remove “unwanted activity” to a specific zone in the park. The officers escorted the church members to a 10-by-20-foot zone marked by cones about 50 yards away from the outskirts of the event area.
Pastor Ronnie and another local pastor met with city officials regarding the incident. But the city doubled down on the speech zone, assuring Pastor Holmes that he would not be able to reach people with his religious message without similar displacement in the future.
According to the city, free speech zones are necessary to ensure everyone could express their opinions in peace. The city also said that WPN had permission to exclude unfavorable expression at its event. The attorney’s office told Pastor Ronnie: “You have the right to come because it’s open, but they have a right to ask you to go to the free speech zone if they choose to.”
Our letter to the city explains why that reasoning is at odds with the Constitution.
“The city of Waco is facilitating religious censorship. That’s wrong, and it’s illegal,” said First Liberty Senior Counsel Nate Kellum. “Free speech was never intended to only be conducted in remote, isolated areas defined by those who choose to silence speech they don’t like.”
Religious speech in a public setting is heavily guarded by the First Amendment. All Americans have a right to express their point of view, religious or secular, perhaps no more so than in public parks—places where people have traditionally gathered to talk and share their beliefs with others.
Forcing people to share their message in a corner away from everyone else is contrary to what religious freedom and free speech in America are all about. The city needs to do what’s right, follow the law and provide assurance that it will no longer enforce its policy that empowers them to banish religious speech at the discretion of an event organizer.
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