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Page: Profile: Wren's Nest News Local
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Article: 19363
[Civil]
Date Posted:
2/10/2008
8:46:06 am EST
Wvox Stats
Views: 6,121
RSS: 16,697
Comments: 11
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Lawsuit Challenges Kewaskum Ordinance
Author: Associated Press Source: Journal-Sentinel (WI)
Title: LAWSUIT CHALLENGES KEWASKUM ORDINANCE
A man who wants to distribute Christian literature door-to-door filed a federal lawsuit Friday, contending that an ordinance in Kewaskum that bans the practice violates his constitutional rights to free speech and religion.
"Christians should not be penalized for expressing their beliefs," said Nate Kellum, an attorney for the Alliance Defense Fund. "Our client simply wanted to quietly leave religious literature on door handles of city residents without bothering anyone."
According to the lawsuit, Michael Foht of Monroe, in Green County, went to two neighborhoods in the Washington County community of Kewaskum on April 25 to place fliers sharing his religious beliefs on the door handles of homes.
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Community Thoughts: There are 11 comments posted | Reverse Sort |
| Heh | Feb 12th. at 5:31:15 pm EST
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Michael Wolfheart (Rapid City, South Dakota) - Email Me
people like that are why my family puts a big wooden fence around our house with a "Beware of Dog" sign on the front. They're also why I wear my pentacle on the outside of my shirt so I can see them go "*gasp!* do you KNOW what that symbol means?!?!" every time I get that reaction I go "Yeah I do, do you?"
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| Some People... | Feb 10th. at 9:11:41 pm EST
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Kate (Athens, Georgia) - Email Me
Some people just have to be annoying. This man knows, even admits, that he's not always welcome where he goes. He does this on purpose. "Professional" Christian? Gotta love it!
Flyers placed on windshields caused such a litter problem that local strip malls banned them. In the long run, we all pay for the clean-up, either in higher prices or higher taxes.
My property is private. You do NOT have the right to drop your trash on my property, in my yard or stuck to my door. You are deciding how I spend my time and effort and that's not your perogative.
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| Make It A Federal Case | Feb 10th. at 5:55:55 pm EST
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steward (Jackson, New Jersey) - Email Me
Just not the way this guy wants.
For all anyone knows, literature abandoned in doorways could have been placed there by terrorists - and the literature could have been coated with a contact poison. Somebody call Homeland Security.
(This isn't as outlandish as it looks, either - a post office 5 miles from where I work was closed for about 2 years for anthrax decontamination.)
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| Literature | Feb 10th. at 1:48:12 pm EST
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Jskelly (Ashland, Virginia) - Email Me
Mr. Foht should read New Test.-Matthew, chapter 6, verse 2.
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| Private Vs Public Property | Feb 10th. at 1:38:54 pm EST
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Lokari (Plainfield, Illinois) - Email Me
Since the ordinance doesn't target religious literature, it is not a violation of the First Amendment.
To that, I would add that the First Amendment addresses freedom of speech in *public* venues. As a homeowner, my doorknob is not a public place, it is private property. So Michael Foht's lawsuit is doubly wrong.
Hope he gets his butt chewed off by a judge.
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| Real Christians... | Feb 10th. at 12:50:18 pm EST
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Avagdu (Independence, Missouri) - Email Me
don't have to sell Jesus. their actions speak for themselves. actions speak far louder than words.
Blessings
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| What A Jerk | Feb 10th. at 11:58:18 am EST
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Terry (Irvington, Virginia) - Email Me
This guy deserves to be arrested and fined into bankruptcy, based on his stated intent.
He's afraid that obeying an ordinance that doesn't ban his knocking on doors nor require a permit to do so in order to limit confusion with criminals staking out houses, but requires permission to use other people's private property, will result in confrontations based on his intended actions? Clearly that means he sees his obsessive-compulsive psychiatric illness mistaken for religion as the equivalent of compelling him to violate "fighting words" doctrine by his intended time, manner, and place of planned actions. Lock the jerk up, if by his actions that's what he deserves.
I can see this guy as worse than some Jahweh's Witlesses, to borrow from Tim Zell's CAW "Other People" story. After politely asking them to not trespass onto a legally posted property years ago, and calling their office to discover they have marketing territories and sales force like do not call (or visit) address lists, a van with 6 of them came down my former 300' long hillside driveway. Two younger guys in front, then two kids in zoot suits, then two apparent moms in back. I stopped them in an awkward spot on a hillside part of that drive, with, "OK, everyone out of the car; you're criminally trespassing. Let's see some ID's NOW!"
I didn't file a police complaint and force those 6 to visit the local lockup and go to court, though I probably would for a jerk like the one in this article. After that van turned out to be driven by their local JW minister, and he asked to take responsibility for the rest of them and in fact did thereafter obey the law, I let them go with only a reminder that they had all acted as criminals, and could easily have been arrested and prosecuted. It's not as easy to post and control access in many flat, open suburban subdivisions or city sidewalks, but anyone so worried about causing confrontations by obnoxious actions at other's homes really isn't making the case for his intent to be a sicko causing annoyance to or problems for others to be an issue of religious or speech civil rights.
The ordinance described in this article impresses me as far closer to neutral and far narrower in its restrictions as to the fuzzy borders between protected speech and abusive actions than many similar intent ones, that do charge fees or require registration for permits, or impose other such hurdles or outright bans. Sounds like a well crafted law that focuses on actions, rather than regulate speech content, and would have the same impact on equally protected political speech, or less protected cable TV or takeout food or similar cold sales, but not restrict a UPS or FedEx, or CATV or telco repairman, from leaving a "we were here, but you weren't", note related to an appointment or package and a visit where the owner had given implied consent.
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| I Hope He Loses. | Feb 10th. at 11:36:18 am EST
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bigcat (peoria, Illinois) - Email Me
People like these make life a bit difficult for homeowners.
For example, when someone goes on vacation or out of town somewhere, and have their mail held, and the newspaper deliveries stopped in order to hide the fact they aren't home, the last thing they need is a bunch of flyers stuck on their door to advertise the empty place to all and sundry.
Not only do those fliers litter everything but are a nuisance to those who have to clean up after them.
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| He'll Lose | Feb 10th. at 10:58:42 am EST
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Stormsinger (Milwaukee, Wisconsin) - Email Me
The ordinance doesn't target religious literature; therefore, it is not a violation of the First Amendment. Its broad scope is designed to prevent general annoyance to the owners of private property and motor vehicles, and probably cut down on litter, since a lot of people, seeing a flyer on their windshield, would be likely to simply pull the darn thing off, drop it where they stand, and go about their business. By the same token, whenever anyone goes about with leaflets in our neighborhood (which doesn't have such an ordinance) , we see the flyers strewn about the yards for weeks afterwards.
In these days when everyone should at least have an inkling about reducing their impact to the environment (whether or not you believe in global warming) , driving all over the place (at roughly $3.00 a gallon) and sticking paper flyers wherever you can seems to be the worst possible combination of non-environmental practices. He should stay home and learn to put up a website if he wants to get his message out. He'll make a greater impact on people, and a much smaller impact on the environment at the same time. Paying for a website is probably a lot cheaper than gas and printing charges.
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| I Suppose ... | Feb 10th. at 10:05:52 am EST
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Ananta Androscoggin (Greene, Maine) - Email Me
I suppose that an alternative charge against this litterer could be for "dumping rubbish on private property" seeing that the property owner (or resident) will have to dispose of the literal (physical) and literary (textual) rubbish he leaves behind.
As to the rest, the ordinance apparently doesn't allow ANYBODY to leave rubbish unasked, not just Christianists of his ilk.
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