Florida Family Policy Council, Inc. et al v. Broward County, Florida et al

Local Police Attempt to Block Collection of Pro-Marriage Petitions Agape Press - June 7 ,2006 A pro-family group in Florida is outraged over the behavior of some police officers last weekend who tried to stop a petition drive aimed at protecting traditional marriage. Last weekend members of the Florida Family Policy Council were at a Promise Keepers conference in Broward County where they were collecting petitions for the Florida4Marriage campaign, an effort to get onto the November 2008 ballot an amendment protecting traditional marriage.

The pro-family group had paid a fee to have a booth at the PK event at which it was collecting the petitions in support of the campaign`s goal of gathering 611,009 signatures by July 12, 2006.
Then in what the group calls a "stunning display of unprofessional conduct," several members of the City of Sunrise Police Department arrived at the scene and ordered Council vice president Nathan Dunn to stop collecting the petitions, and then removed the petitions from public view. A discussion ensued, during which John Stemberger -- president and general counsel for the Council -- was summoned to the scene. The group says Stemberger`s request for an explanation of what law or ordinance was being violated was ignored by Police Sergeant Stephen Allen, who it says then began lecturing nearby volunteers on what Jesus taught about homosexuality, claiming that the petition effort was a waste of time and that he was the authority and they should obey him.

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4-26-2007

Florida Family Policy Council Sues Harassing Police Officer

by Jennifer Mesko, associate editor


Staff, volunteers were told to stop collecting marriage petitions. Last year, the Florida Family Policy Council (FFPC) rented a tent at a Promise Keepers conference to hand out information on the state's marriage protection amendment and to collect petitions.
But some Sunrise, Fla., police officers would have none of it. They shut down the petitioners. Then, Sgt. Stephen Allen took it upon himself to lecture the family advocates on homosexuality and the Bible. He went so far as to mockingly kiss another officer.

Now FFPC is fighting back. It filed suit Tuesday in federal district court, charging that Broward County and Allen violated the civil rights of its staff and volunteers.
"We have the highest regard for law enforcement officers in this state who lay down their lives to protect us every day," John Stemberger, president of the Florida Family Policy Council, said in a statement. "This was a blatant violation of the First Amendment.
"The officer in charge appeared to have a personal agenda and displayed a lack of professionalism, as well as an utter disregard for our constitutional rights," said Stemberger, who was threatened with arrest.
Bruce Hausknecht, judicial analyst for Focus on the Family Action, said such behavior offers a glimpse into the future if the U.S. Congress passes "hate-crimes" legislation.
"Believers everywhere should rise up and defend their First Amendment free speech rights in every case like this, before they wake up one day to find that Christian speech like 'one-man, one-woman marriage' is punished as 'hate speech.'"

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You’d think that such a simple political act as getting a petition signed would have long ago been settled an an “inalienable right” in American jurisprudence, especially if you have paid for a table at the event, and the promoters have approved your purpose, and indeed it has been settled by the courts.

Well, someone needs to inform the Sunrise, Florida Police Department of this tenet of American law, because between them, five of that city’s officers couldn’t get it right.

Working from a rented table at the June 2-3 conference, the group was there to try and collect signatures on petitions calling for a statewide vote on protecting traditional marriage — that between one man and one woman. However, Sunrise police officers stepped in and stopped the petition signing, physically removing the petitions from the table,

This is like a nightmare — a clearly defined constitutional right being denied by a sworn officer of the law! And why? For no other reason than the officer’s personal beliefs were different from those of the group seeking to have a peition signed by legal Florida voters.

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crazyfingers said:

In other words, it is an issue about where petitioning can be done and not about the content of the petition.

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Nearly a year after receiving threats from Broward County Police, the Florida Family Policy Council (FFPC) is filing a suit in Federal District Court against two officers for violating the group's First Amendment rights. Last June, the FFPC paid to exhibit at a Promise Keepers Conference in Sunrise. As part of its display, volunteers distributed information about the state's marriage protection amendment and asked visitors to sign the petition in an effort to get the proposal on the 2008 ballot. Later that day, the group had some surprise visitors at its booth--the Sunrise Police Department.--who showed up and shut down their petition drive. Sergeant Stephen Allen, the officer in charge at the scene, lectured the FFPC and onlookers about Jesus' supposed views on homosexuality and the Bible's command to obey authorities.

When asked, the officers refused to provide a legal justification for their actions, but their political agendas were quite evident when Sgt. Allen leaned over and mockingly kissed a fellow male officer in front of the group. FFPC President John Stemberger said, "The officer in charge... displayed a lack of professionalism as well as utter disregard for our constitutional rights."

Stemberger, who was "personally threatened with arrest" if the petitions remained on the table, said, "We are simply not going to be discriminated against because certain bad cops do not like our message." We applaud Stemberger's group for taking the officers to task.

Theirs was a classic abuse of power that, if unchecked, would empower other law enforcement authorities to intimidate people based on their personal and political bias. The Sunrise Police exist to protect the rights of FFPC--not infringe on them.

Fortunately, their actions haven't dampened the enthusiasm of voters for the Florida4Marriage campaign. So far, the group is only 21,000 signatures shy of the required 611,009 needed to get the issue on the ballot.

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