Suit Challenges Arrest For Reading Bible To Californians Lined Up At Motor Vehicle Department

The Riverside (CA) Press-Enterprise reports that a lawsuit was filed in federal district court in California last Tuesday by a pastor and two elders of the Hemet (CA) Calvary Chapel who were arrested for trespassing and interfering with public business for reading the Bible to a crowd lined up outside the local Department of Motor Vehicles office.  The highway patrol says it previously told church members they were not allowed to preach on DMV property without a permit. The men who had preached at parks, shopping malls and the court house in Hemet, as well as repeatedly at the DMV, were told that the permit requirement was justified because of the captive nature of their audience at the DMV.  One of the men responded: "The devil's holding everyone captive to do his will...."  The complaint (full text) in Coronado v. California Highway Patrol, (SD CA, filed 4/26/2011), contends that their arrest violated their free speech rights under the U.S. and California constitutions, violated the 4th Amendment and amounted to false imprisonment under state law. The incident is portrayed on a YouTube video.