Street preacher wins a round, but legal battle likely to continue

By RICHARD KOE

    PORTLAND-- Edward Gathright, the well-known downtown street preacher who speaks his mind regarding homosexuals, women, and even the Dalai Lama, won a preliminary injunction on April 23 which prevents thePortlandcity government from ejecting him from public areas.

      Gathright filed a federal lawsuit in Feburary against the city, and  U.S. District Judge Ancer Haggerty ruled in April that groups with permits for public events -- Gay Pride Week, AIDS Awareness Walk -- can’t eject street preachers from city parks unless probable cause exists to think they broke the law.  Both Gathright and the city disagree over what behavior constitutes probable cause.

      The city attorney’s office said an appeal to the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is needed because groups with permits shouldn’t be forced to incorporate opposing speech into their events.  That, according to the city, is a violation of those groups. Portlandhas an ordinance saying it’s unlawful for any person to interfere unreasonably with a permittee’s use of a park.

      Kelly Ford, Gathright’s attorney, said event organizers have been given carte blanche under the city ordinance to exclude anybody they want.  As a result, the city is violating his client’s constitutional rights to free speech in a public setting, Ford maintains.

      City officials told The Oregonian that they generally allow groups with permits in city parks to establish rules of conduct for their events and to eject unwanted persons. Haggerty’s order, however, said the groups can’t do that unless there is probable cause to think there has been a violation of a valid statute, ordinance, or regulation.

      Haggerty’s injunction would stand until Gathright’s lawsuit is decided.  The judge said Gathright has proven at least a fair chance of success in his lawsuit.  He added that groups with permits also have free-speech rights, but the city ordinance is too broad, failing to ensure that people are ejected solely for disruptiveness.

      The judge raised the prospect of a future Gay Pride event where the organizers might recognize Gathright and ask the police to kick him out before he said or did anything.

      In January 2002, Gathright and three other local street preachers won a decision by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals which ruled that they were free to preach and pass out tracts in the “commons” area atPortland’s Rose Quarter.

      City officials had allowed the Oregon Arena Corporation, which manages the Rose Garden arena and Memorial Coliseum, to write its own free speech rules for the Rose Quarter.  Gathright and the other preachers contended that the rules made it difficult to reach their target audiences.

      The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court ruled then that the city-owned commons was a public forum like a public park, and that any rules concerning speech must be of the same type as allowed in a park--very limited rules. 

      Haggerty was also involved in October, 2001, when he struck down as unconstitutional an exclusion order by the city banning another local preacher, Paul deParrie, from city parks. 

     A month later, deParrie’s attorneys asked Haggerty for a preliminary injnuction prohibiting the city from enforcing the ordinance against deParrie for the duration of the legal battle.  When the city promised no such action, Haggerty decided that the injunction was unnecessary. DeParrie said at the time that prospects look good  for a permanent injunction after the case goes on trial.  The Circuit Court decision in January 2002 would help his case greatly.