Street Preachers Successfully Challenge City's Permit Ordinance

In World Wide Street Preachers' Fellowship v. City of Grand Rapids, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 35698 (WD MI, May 16, 2007), a Michigan court gave a partial victory to a Christian preacher who had been arrested for preaching loudly without a permit near a Pagan Pride Festival in a Grand Rapids, Michigan park. While the court upheld the city's breach-of-the peace ordinance, it granted a preliminary injunction against enforcing the its permit ordinance, finding that it is overbroad and not narrowly tailored. While the permit ordinance violated plaintiff's speech rights, it did not violate his free exercise rights.