Suit Seeks Right To Preach At "Tour of Lights" Event

Yesterday's Duluth (MN) News Tribune and the Minneapolis Star Tribune, report that two locally well-known street preachers have filed suit in federal district court to obtain the right to preach at the Bentleyville Tour of Lights held in Duluth's Bayfront Festival Park. The event attracts 150,000 people annually, and the city furnishes trash and snow removal, lights and similar services. Plaintiffs say they have a religious obligation to preach in public, including carrying signs and wearing messages on their clothes. One of the men, along with a second preacher, was ordered out of the display last year when they insisted on preaching to those attending.  Deputy City Attorney Alison Lutterman says that Bentleyville, a private organization, "has a contact with the city that allows it exclusive rights to the use of the Bayfront area for its presentation of a holiday lighting display.... These exclusive rights include the right to exclude persons. Bentleyville is not an area intended for the exercise of 1st Amendment activity. The management of Bentleyville have been advised of its right to exclude persons from the area within its contractual exclusive use." In the lawsuit, Steve Jankowski and Peter Scott ask the court to enjoin Duluth police officials from ejecting them from the event.