A federal appeals court ruled that the police officers in Dearborn, Michigan violated the First Amendment rights of a Christian group by forcing them to leave an Arab-American festival in 2012 when a crowd began throwing objects at them.
In 2012, members of “Bible Believers”-- a group of Christian street preachers-- were kicked out of an Arab-American festival in Dearborn, Michigan. When the Muslim crowd became violent, the preachers contacted the police to protect them. Instead, the police told the preachers to leave the festival or be arrested.
Members of the Bible Believers filed suit, but the lawsuit was dismissed in 2013 and was upheld by a three-judge federal appeals panel in 2014.
By a narrow 8-7 vote, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decided on Wednesday that Wayne County and two deputy police chiefs were liable to members of the group for violating their constitutional rights, reversing the earlier decisions.
"Although it might be inferred that the Bible Believers' speech was intended to anger their target audience, the record is devoid of any indication that they intended imminent lawlessness to ensue,” Judge Eric Clay wrote in the majority opinion.
“In this opinion we reaffirm the comprehensive boundaries of the First Amendment’s free speech protection, which envelopes all manner of speech, even when that speech is loathsome in its intolerance, designed to cause offense, and, as a result of such offense, arouses violent retaliation,” he continued.
The federal district court has yet to determine the damages and legal fees for the Christian group.
