COLUMBUS, Ohio — After nearly eight years of litigation, a federal court has ruled in favor of attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund against Ohio officials over the 1999 arrest of a pastor for his public expression of religion on the grounds of the state capitol. Pastor James Hood had preached and distributed religious literature on the grounds surrounding the statehouse for nearly 20 years without incident before officials arrested him in 1999.
“Christian speech should not be criminalized. If this man can be treated as second class and his public expression of faith silenced, who is to say another person will not be treated the same way? That’s why this order is important: free speech must remain free,” said ADF Senior Counsel Nate Kellum, who argued the case on behalf of the pastor after filing suit in 2000.
The Ohio Capitol Square Review and Advisory Board, which maintains the capitol grounds, as well as the Ohio State Highway Patrol, which polices the capitol grounds, both required Hood to obtain a permit to preach and distribute religious literature on public property. By contrast, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit in 2004 affirmed a lower court decision in another ADF case,
Parks v. Finan, which struck down the very same complex Ohio permit scheme used as a basis for arresting Hood (
www.telladf.org/news/story.aspx?cid=2807).
Over the course of litigation, Hood lost his case two times at the district level before those decisions were reversed on appeal. Hood’s rights were vindicated through the consent order in
Hood vs. Keller on Thursday.
“The inalienable rights of the First Amendment do not require a permit before they become active,” said Kellum. “After nearly eight long years of litigation, we are pleased that the state has finally recognized that they were wrong in arresting Mr. Hood under an unconstitutional statute. We only regret that it took them so long to do it.”
ADF is a legal alliance defending the right to hear and speak the Truth through strategy, training, funding, and litigation.
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