Court Rejects Protesters' Attempts To Use Chalk Art In Anti-Roe Demonstration

In Mahoney v.District of Columbia, (D DC, Sept. 30, 2009), the D.C. federal district court rejected claims by several Christian anti-abortion protesters that their rights were infringed when they were denied permission to use chalk art as part of an anti-Roe v. Wade demonstration on the pedestrian plaza in front of the White House. The court concluded that the D.C. Code provision prohibiting the defacement of public property is an appropriate content-neutral time, place and manner regulation of speech. As a neutral law of general applicability, it survives plaintiffs' free exercise challenge. It does not impose a substantial burden on their religious exercise under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act because, while plaintiffs have a religious belief that they need to challenge abortion, they "do not allege that it is their sincerely held religious belief that they should express those views to the president through the specific medium of chalk or in the specific location of the 1600 Block promenade." The court also rejected plaintiffs' equal protection claim and their claim that police violated D.C.'s First Amendment Rights and Police Standards Act. (See prior related posting.)