Parky60 Loc: People's Republic of Illinois

Colorado has become a hotbed of anti-Christian sentiment in recent years.

There was the state’s assault on the constitutional rights of baker Jack Phillips, who declined to violate his faith and create a cake promoting same-sex relationships, and in that case the state’s “hostility” to Christianity was publicly rebuked by the Supreme Court.

The state also has ordered a Christian web designer to promote homosexuality with her work, an agenda that currently is pending before the courts.

Then there was this week’s announcement by its university hospital system that it would remove a donor and a recipient from a kidney t***splant procedure list because as a Christian, the donor isn’t getting the C****-** v******tion.

Now the city of Denver’s attack on a Christian man who wants to preach on public property to which the public has routine access has been turned back by a federal judge.

The Denver Gazette reported the details of the fight which resulted in a federal judge allowing a man to preach his Christian faith near an entrance to the city-owned Red Rocks amphitheater.

The city had banished any “free speech” at the public facility to faraway corners where people never were.

Joseph Maldonado had challenged that city decision, and in a federal lawsuit, U.S. District Court Senior Judge R. Brooke Jackson said Maldonado would not have freedom to roam the facility while preaching, but also said the city could not ban him from every location it wanted.

Jackson wrote in his opinion granting a preliminary injunction allowing Maldonado to preach in some locations that most people aren’t interested in hearing sermons at the concert venue.

“But that practical reality does not trump the constitutional issue. Denver has not offered any alternative location where the plaintiff could share his message with pedestrians,” the judge said.

Denver had listed five spots at Red Rocks where “free speech” was allowed, all “far removed from the amphitheater and do not allow for engagement with pedestrians,” the report explained.

Specifically, Maldonado wanted permission to be in two stairway-linked parking areas.

The judge noted that one of those locations was not a traditional public forum, but said the other lot “does not have a sign limiting it to event parking, is open to non-ticketed pedestrians during events, and contains no barriers or indicators that people are entering an off-limits space,” the report explained.

“Denver has not shown that plaintiff’s activity would impair Denver’s ability to use the amphitheatre as a revenue-generating arts venue, nor has it shown any safety concerns with plaintiff’s activities in the Upper North Lot,” the judge wrote.

His injunction will apply while the case develops in the court.

It’s the same issue being fought over by multiple public universities where officials banish “free speech” on their campuses to remote and often minuscule locations.

LogicallyRight Loc: Chicago

While everyone should have the ability to speak, or preach, and that law should be overturned, to allow that person to preach in multiple reasonable venues, where his speech could be heard, there should be limits. In my opinion.

To be forced to listen to amplified or loud or continuous preaching in the same location, like outside of your residence or place of business, is an intrusion of the rights of people to not have to listen to their message or crap. I rarely, but on occasion, have had to listen to their message or crap. He has his rights and I have mine. There needs to be balance. If I am forced to hear that crap on rare occasions, that is part of living in a society, and not being a hermit in the forest. Daily, loudly, amplified are intrusions on my rights to some level of solitude as I move about, beyond the general noises of society. And that goes for music too. Most outside musicians are playing things that I would never want to listen to, and sure don't appreciate being forced on me, while waiting 15 minutes in a closed subway station.
I have also been forced to endure preaching and vocal sad story begging on trains between stations. I paid for that ride. I have a right to not have to listen to that crap while trying to peacefully read along the way.

Just some thoughts on the matter.

FallenOak Loc: St George Utah

What you have written is certainly logical. What I dislike is the car that stops next to me at a signal with speakers full blast going thump, thump, thump. My thought each time being that our government will offer free hearing care to that i***t in the future when their hearing is gone. They caused their problem and should be required to live with it at their own expense.
My belief is that governments want people to be grouped together in cities because it is easier to control or sometimes more cost effective to k**l them when herded together. Sort of like cattle in a chute at the slaughterhouse.

LogicallyRight Loc: Chicago

You got that right.