ACLU Brief Affirms Right of Jehovah's Witnesses to Carry Out Public Ministry

[Judi Lynn]

January 21, 2010
1:57 PM

ACLU Brief Affirms Right of Jehovah's Witnesses to Carry Out Public Ministry
Laws in Puerto Rico Restricting Access to Public Streets Violate First Amendment

NEW YORK - January 21 - The American Civil Liberties Union, its national chapter in Puerto Rico and its affiliates in New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts and Rhode Island filed a friend-of-the-court brief late Wednesday opposing unconstitutional laws that effectively ban Jehovah's Witnesses from freely expressing their faith in the streets of Puerto Rico.

The brief, filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, supports a constitutional challenge to Puerto Rico laws, enacted in 1987, that authorize neighborhoods to deny citizens access to public residential streets by erecting walls and gates around them. The laws effectively prohibit Jehovah's Witnesses from engaging in the door-to-door public ministry for which they are well known worldwide. The federal lawsuit was filed by the approximately 25,000 Jehovah's Witnesses in 318 congregations in Puerto Rico, as well as the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc., the publisher of religious material that is often distributed by Jehovah's Witnesses.

"The Jehovah's Witnesses unquestionably have a constitutionally protected right to proclaim their faith on the public streets of Puerto Rico," said Daniel Mach, Director of Litigation for the ACLU Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief. "These laws impose sweeping restrictions on free speech and religious exercise and strike at the heart of the First Amendment."

The ACLU's amicus brief, filed with cooperating counsel at the Washington, DC office of Mayer Brown LLP, argues that closing off public streets to outside speakers is an unprecedented intrusion on some of the most basic, fundamental rights guaranteed by the First Amendment.

More:
http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2010/01/21-19

[Posteritatis]

1. Definitely agree. (nt)

[RedCloud]

2. Agree. But they should know YAHWEH ELOHIM is plural!

[Warpy]

3. Sure, as long as they leave me alone

and after two years of being greeted by a harridan who had just been awakened after 12 hours in critical care and who was rabid and shrieked at them, they do leave me strictly alone.

I haven't seen them in 12 years now.

Shoot, the Mormons cross the street when they get to my house.

[Deep13]

4. I'm far more disturbed by the suggestion that Puerto Rican streets...

...have become little forts and that citizens generally cannot freely walk around.

If this rule is universally applicable and does not single out JWs, then it is not unconstitutional, at least not for that reason. While the govt. may not single out one specific religion in applying restrictions, it has no obligation to give it any special favors either.

[stevedeshazer]

5. Now comes a REAL First Amendment case

Even though I disagree with them, I support their right to express their views in public.

Corporations? Not so much.

Jehovah's Witnesses are living, breathing human beings.

Recommended.

[Schema Thing]

7. As an exJW, I say use of the word "living" to describe them ...

...should be qualified ;)



But I'll grant that they are breathing. Real "living" requires much more freedom of mind and conscience than Jehovah's Witnesses are afforded.

[stevedeshazer]

8. I appreciate your perspective.

Thanks.

[LiberalFighter]

6. They might have better success it was a pubic ministry.