Judge blasts state ban on distributing Bibles to students
Pastor Dale Morgan
Judge blasts state ban on distributing Bibles to students*
Law unconstitutional because it 'encourages arbitrary enforcement'
Posted: June 19, 2008
Alliance Defense Fund
A federal court has declared a Florida law banning representatives of
the Gideons from handing out Bibles within 500 feet of any school in the
state unconstitutional because it is vague and actually "encourages
arbitrary enforcement."
The ruling in a case brought by the Alliance Defense Fund comes from
U.S. District Court Judge K. Michael Moore and addresses an incident
that developed Jan. 19, 2007, at Key Largo School, run by Principal
Annette Martinson.
The law actually prohibits anyone without "legitimate business" from
being within 500 feet of schools in the state and specifies "each
principal or designee of each public or private school in this state
shall notify the appropriate law enforcement agency to prohibit any
person from loitering in the school safety zone who does not have
legitimate business in the school safety zone or any other
authorization, or license to enter or remain in the school safety zone
or does not otherwise have invitee status in the designated safety zone."
The issue arose because of team of Gideons, known for paying all of
their own expenses out of pocket while raising all of their own funds
and giving away Bibles, had been distributing the Scriptures at Key
Largo School
The Gideons' procedure is to notify local police departments two weeks
before their distribution date, give school administrators notice and
have participants stand on a public bike path or sidewalk and avoid
stepping on school grounds.
But we reported earlier when two members of the Gideons organization
were charged for handing out Bibles there, and when a judge dismissed
those counts.
Ernest Simpson and Anthony Mirto had been taken into custody by a
sheriff's deputy and charged with trespassing after the principal of Key
Largo School, Martinson, complained they were handing out Bibles.
The initial counts were dismissed at the request of the ADF shortly
after the law firm got involved, but then authorities filed a second
round of counts, under a different law – this state law that prohibits
anyone from being within 500 feet of any school property, including on
public sidewalks and streets, without having either "legitimate
business" or permission.
The lawsuit lawsuit at hand then was filed on behalf of Gideon Thomas
Gray, who was not arrested with Simpson and Mirto but arrived when they
called to report trouble with a particular deputy sheriff.
"Gray approached Officer [John] Perez and asked what the charges were.
Officer Perez was highly agitated and said that Gray would know in 48
hours when he received the report," the judge said.
Gray contacted another deputy through whom he'd arranged for the
distribution.
"Gray then called Deputy [Ralph] Williams and asked for his assistance …
Deputy Williams indicated that he would e-mail Officer Perez … Gray told
Officer Perez that he had an e-mail in his car from another officer
stating that the Gideons have a right to distribute Bibles from the
public bike path/sidewalk, but Officer Perez indicated that he did not
care," the judge wrote.
The ADF reported the two Gideons who were arrested were "placed in a
Monroe County patrol car. A police officer mocked the two men, saying
they could 'pray to Jesus all the way to jail.'"
The ADF, after seeing that the charges against Simpon and Mirto were
dismissed, filed the action on behalf of Gray, who said he feared arrest
if he exercised his right to distribute Bibles.
The federal judge found that the state definition of a school safety
zone, in the Key Largo School location, would include a public bike path
and walkway abutting U.S. Highway 1, the highway itself and businesses
including a pet motel, a gas station, a restaurant and a plumbing business.
"Given the wide range of non-exempt persons and the various types of
areas within the school safety zone, such as sidewalks, residential
houses and streets, businesses, parking lots, etc., construing
'legitimate purpose' to mean any purpose which is connected with the
operation of the school would result in an application so broad that it
would likely infringe of First and Fourteenth Amendment rights," the
judge said.
He ordered the state never again enforce that particular law.
"Christians shouldn’t be penalized for expressing their beliefs," said
ADF Senior Legal Counsel David Cortman. "Arresting or threatening to
arrest Christians simply because they choose to exercise their First
Amendment rights in a public place is unconstitutional. The court was
right in its assessment that the particular law used against these
members of the Gideons does not pass constitutional muster."
In a statement at the outset of the case, Becky Herrin, of the public
information office in the Monroe County sheriff's office, stated as a
fact that the defendants in the case did trespass. She later declined
additional comment.
"A copy of our police report (see attached) … clearly states that the
people in question were arrested for trespassing on school property –
not on a public sidewalk… In fact, they were given the opportunity to
step off school property and onto public property, and they could have
continued with their activities if they had done so. They chose instead
to remain, against repeated warnings, on school property so deputies
were forced to arrest them," Herrin said in a statement.
But the attached report forwarded to us revealed the two were arrested
while in their vehicle parked near, but not on, school property.
The Gideons, a group founded in the late 1800s, has as its "sole
purpose" the goal "to win men, women, boys and girls to a saving
knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ through association for service,
personal testimony, and distributing the Bible in the human traffic
lanes and streams of everyday life."
Gideons have placed the Bible in 181 nations in 82 different languages
over the years.
The organization focuses on hotels and motels, hospitals and nursing
homes, schools, colleges and universities, the military and law
enforcement and prisons and jails.
"The demand for Scriptures in these areas far exceeds our supplies that
we are able to purchase through our donations. Much more could be done –
if funds were available. However, we are placing and distributing more
than one million copies of the Word of God, at no cost, every seven days
in these areas…" the group said.
The organization only gives away the Bibles with the Gideon logo on the
covers, but plain Bibles are available for consumers to purchase at its
distribution center at P.O. Box 140800, Nashville, Tenn., 37214-0800.
Information about the products is available on the group's website.
The Gideons serve as an extended missionary arm of the Christian church
and are the oldest Christian business and professional men's association
in the United States.