Appeals court sides with preacher

    PORTLAND – Although his style of open-air preaching raises a fuss, the Portland city government was wrong for evicting Edward Gathright from events at two local sites, a federal appeals court ruled last month.
     The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Feb. 24 ruled in favor of Gathright, an evangelical Christian who in 2003 had sued the city for violating his First Amendment free speech rights.
     As reported by The Oregonian, Gathright’s attorney, Herbert Grey, said the next step is for a jury to decide whether the city should pay damages to his client.
     Gathright acknowledged that he upset women when he called them “jezebels” and ‘daughters of Babylon” before he was tossed out of events at Tom McCall Waterfront Park and Pioneer Courthouse Square.
     Upholding a 2004 ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Ancer Haggerty, the federal appeals court said the city gave groups that held the events at the city parks too much discretion to eject people.
    In 2001 and 2002, Gathright was outsted from the Northwest Tibetan Cultural Association’s Pathways to Peace Welcoming Festival, two gay pride festivals, an AIDS walk, an Italian fiesta, and the one-year anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.