CINCINNATI — On behalf of 31 of Cincinnati’s most prominent pastors and pro-family leaders, Alliance Defense Fund attorneys Monday filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the publisher of City Beat newspaper. Lightborne Publishing alleges that the pro-family leaders and others conspired to violate the publisher’s free speech rights and diminish its profits by voicing concerns about thinly-veiled ads for prostitution and other sex services.
“Pro-family groups shouldn’t be penalized for expressing their beliefs, and communities shouldn’t be kept from protecting their own families and children,” said ADF Senior Legal Counsel Mike Johnson. “Ironically, Lightborne Publishing is suing to deny pro-family organizations and citizens the same First Amendment rights that it is demanding for itself. Those who push sex-for-sale ads cannot silence people who exercise their constitutional right to object.”
On July 6, Citizens for Community Values, leading a large coalition of pro-family citizens and organizations, held a press conference to announce the release of a joint letter requesting that Lightborne act as a responsible corporate citizen and cease accepting and publishing explicit sex-for-sale advertisements. The letter noted that local law enforcement records show “that many of the arrests made relating to prostitution, solicitation and promoting prostitution offenses result from phone calls placed to numbers listed under the adult services category of City Beat.”
Two days later, Lightborne sued CCV and its supporters. ADF attorneys filed a motion to dismiss after agreeing to defend free of charge the many pro-family leaders and organizations named in the lawsuit.
“Pro-family organizations have the same First Amendment rights as anyone else in America,” Johnson added. “Voicing opposition to what a newspaper publishes is not a conspiracy—it’s free speech protected by the First Amendment. Every citizen should be encouraged to speak out against prostitution, sexual exploitation of women, and human trafficking.”
A copy of the brief in support of the motion to dismiss the case Lightborne Publishing v. Citizens for Community Values filed with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, Cincinnati Division is available at www.telladf.org/UserDocs/CCVDismissalBrief.pdf.
ADF is a legal alliance of Christian attorneys and like-minded organizations defending the right of people to freely live out their faith. Launched in 1994, ADF employs a unique combination of strategy, training, funding, and litigation to protect and preserve religious liberty, the sanctity of life, marriage, and the family.
www.telladf.org